It felt like déjà vu at the Rustenburg Stadium on Saturday when Kaizer Chiefs fans pelted coach Arthur Zwane with missiles as police rushed him into the tunnel following his team’s loss to SuperSport United.
The ugly violent scenes were hardly anything new in our football, especially among the big team supporters who often take their frustrations of poor performance on their coaches. For Chiefs in particular, the ugly scenes were a repeat of the violence in 2018 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium after a Nedbank Cup loss.
Then the fans stormed the pitch after final whistle and coach Steve Komphela had to be escorted into the tunnel by the police as objects flew at him and some players. Komphela would later announce he was quitting at the post-match press conference.
The two events are much more than just about object-throwing and emotions running high after losing a match. They are part and parcel of a footballing culture of spreading fear and intimidation by use of violence that has been normalised.
This is because violence has long been used to force coaches to quit jobs, with some clubs even going as far as stating they could no longer guarantee a coach’s safety after angry fans visited their training ground.
Over the years, we have witnessed this type of deplorable behaviour and mayhem by thugs go unpunished and as the adage goes – violence begetting more violence.
What happened at the Rustenburg Stadium where Zwane sustained a cut under his eye after being hit by an object cannot be tolerated. Both law enforcement and the club should identify the culprits who were captured on video and deal with them swiftly and harshly.
This will send a strong message that such behaviour has no place in our football. We must all reject and condemn any use of violence to solve problems, but even more so to threaten the safety of the public and others simply because people are aggrieved.
The PSL has duty to hold all the football clubs accountable by restoring civility necessary to guarantee public safety at all soccer matches. But if the behaviour we witnessed on Saturday is not nipped in the bud, we do run the risk of further damaging the football brand as a game of hooligans and thugs.
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