DERBY DOWNER

 

 

Kwazi Thabethe

@KwaziThabethe

 

The other day I got home from a hard day of slaving it up for the baas and found my dad watching the biggest contest South African football has to offer; The Soweto Derby! I opened the door, saw it on the TV screen with the vuvuzela's buzzing in the background and you know what my immediate thought was? "OH GOD, NOT ANOTHER ONE!" 

 

Why was that my immediate reaction? Maybe my thinking was influenced by my bitterness from that time in 2011 when I, along with a group of friends, took a 600 km pilgrimage to Soccer City for the Soweto Derby MTN 8 final that ended up being an embarrassing bore? Or maybe I just recalled that time last December when I got caught up in the derby hype and arranged yet another weekend trip to Johannesburg with the same group of friends? Oh yeah, we drove up, fired up the braai-stand, soaked in the electric derby atmosphere, and then made the error of actually watching the game itself. The dullness of what we witnessed on the TV screen just made everyone in the room feel awkward. If it wasn't my unresolved trauma from that tiresome anti-climax then maybe it was the feeling of despair I felt at the conclusion of the last Chiefs-Pirates fixture I watched. I went to a local bar with a friend and there we were treated to a mind-numbing 0-0 snore draw. After that game, I was done! I came to one conclusion about the massive hype that surrounds the Soweto Derby; Kudlaliwe ngabantu! We fans deserve so much better than the poor quality of football we're given time & time again from this fixture.

 

 

Besides complaining about the quality of football, I might also add that Chiefs vs Pirates games always seem to lack that intensity that adds a competitive edge to any sporting spectacle. I'm not in the habit of unfavourably comparing African situations to the rest of the world but at the same time I'm a footballing fanatic and so I can't help but notice that the Soweto Derby lacks the sort of sub-plot that adds mystique and an extra bit of interest to a rivalry. In Turkey for example, the two biggest club sides there are Galatasary & Fenerbache and when they meet, there's a cultural clash in the stands to supplement the football clash on the field. Istanbul, the capital city of Turkey caters to both an Asian and European culture; Fenerbahce represent the Asian side, while Galatasaray are more European. There's nothing culturally different about Chiefs fans and Pirates fans or any significant cultural difference in the way the way both clubs operate. When Greece's 2 biggest teams play one another, it's considered an extension of class warfare with Panathinaikos considered to be representative of the upper class while Olympiacos are the team of the working class. In Argentina, the "Super Classico" derby between River Plate and Boca Juniors is also a game that has a history of an economic disparity between the followers of both sides;  Boca Juniors is known as the club of Argentina's working class or the people's club, with many Boca fans coming from the Italian immigrant community whist River Plate has a predominantly upper class support base. South Africa lacks that sort of dynamic between Chiefs and Pirates fans to thicken the plot of the derby. When a sporting contest goes beyond just being about sport, it adds to the significance of the event and mobilises anybody and everybody around it. Casual viewers suddenly become die-hard fans and even those who tend to show apathy toward sports make time to watch. Because the rivalry between Chiefs and Pirates lacks that polarising characteristic found in other global derbies, it never has the feel of a proxy battle being contested on a football field.   

When an economic, cultural, tribal or political sub-plot acts as the backdrop to the sporting contest, it tends to instil a warrior-like spirit in the hearts of the competitors because they have the confidence of an entire cluster behind them. The athletes then approach the contest in a way similar to how a soldier approaches going in to combat and usually give a performance that reflects poise, hunger,

 

commitment, and professionalism. In recent years I've all too often found myself lamenting the absence of these qualities from players in both camps of the Soweto Derby while also enviously looking on at how titanic clashes in other countries have these qualities in abundance. I recently read an article (can't remember where) where one journalist described the significance of FC Barcelona's rivalry with Real Madrid to the autonomous Spanish region of Catalunya by saying "Catalunya is a nation and Barcelona is its army!". This sort of sentiment is also evident in the sport of boxing when Hispanic fighters step into the ring. The build-up's to their bouts always stir up nationalistic emotions, particularly when fighters from rival Hispanic nations are duelling, and that usually results in spontaneous combustion inside the ring. It’s no surprise then that a Chiefs vs Pirates clash almost always fails to produce that sort of result seeing as the two clubs seem to be on friendly terms. They have the same major sponsors, compete in pre-season friendlies together, and even the 2 opposing club chairmen appear to be good friends. Elsewhere on the African continent, the rivalry between Al Ahly and Zamalek is so intense that match official's need to be brought in from abroad as a means of ensuring impartiality because the stakes are so high. The absence of this sort of friction is a major factor in why the derby is always so tame and underwhelming.

 

The approach that Chiefs and Pirates use in the days leading up match-day better resembles that of 2 corporate entities campaigning to promote a joint initiative rather than 2 enemy camps about to slug it out in grudge match. Vodacom pays for some silly advert to promote the game for both sets of fans, players from both sides appear on the same radio or TV show a couple of days before the game and try to sound convincing when they lie about what a great game we're going to be treated to, and the officially recognised number 1 fan's from each side will do a joint appearance of some sort on whatever medium that's willing to entertain them.  All these scheduled promo's create a working relationship between teams that are supposed to be rivals and that working relationship, whether they know it or not, comes into play when they meet on the field. As a result, a contest that's meant to be between fierce enemies then has the tempo of a game between friends. The football suffers as a consequence of all the commercial interests that safeguard the links between the clubs. At this point the Soweto Derby is headed towards the WWE wrestling route where the stars are depicted as enemies purely for the sake of generating interest but we all know that they're all friends behind the scenes.

The pride that and excitement shown towards Soweto Derby by the people deserves better football then what we're seeing whenever these games are staged and until the quality picks up, I'll instinctively cringe whenever I see it hyped in the media. I've speculated about where the problems lie but I don't have the solutions. All I'll say is that I'm tired of feeling duped and short-changed after the conclusion of these fixtures so I think I'm going to pass on them from now on. But please let me know if the quality of football ever picks up to a respectable level so I can start watching again.