By Kgomotso Mokoena
Johannesburg – For many, many years, long before the multibillion- rand broadcast deals came to the fore, the print media and the public broadcaster kept the flag flying high when it came to the marketing and publicising of local football.
The SABC, through its multitudes of radio stations and TV channels, was the go-to-guy. Well, it goes without saying that it was the only one that could provide such a service.
The print media, through some colourful writing in the back pages of newspapers such as Sowetan, The Star, City Press, The World, The Citizen and Sunday World in its salad days, had a lekker, easy-going partnership with the bosses of the leagues.
There were also magazines such as Soccer News, Sharpshooter, Kick-Off , SA Soccer whose main source of content was SA diski and nothing else.
They brought the game to the homes of millions of soccer followers in the country. They were like the Bible. Readers relied on them for breaking news, for feature/lifestyle articles and for general information. Newspapers and TV shows simply provided a social service.
In the last two decades or so, things have changed drastically.
It would not be wrong to suggest that some sectors were somewhat not ready for the digital migration, the smartphones, online media outlets, websites and the new cutting-edge broadcast technology that resulted in our lives evolving so significantly.
Pay-channel TV has overtaken the analogue antiques.
Websites and online publications are kicking the butt of traditional newspapers.
MultiChoice, through its offspring Super- Sport, has pumped in billions of gorillas into the PSL coffers.
They are the official broadcast rights holders and the bloodstream of the PSL.
Currently, and due to Covid- 19 chaos, only SuperSport journalists and a certain partnering photography agency are allowed to attend matches under the banner of the PSL.
Other sports reporters are still barred from the stadiums and have to feed on scraps in order to get some content for their various media.
Their livelihoods have been affected, some have been retrenched and others have had their salaries reduced … it is the darkest hour for many a soccer reporter.
This all the while our media colleagues reporting on cricket and rugby have been allowed to attend matches.
There were consultation processes between the journalists, the rugby and cricket authorities and consensus was reached – just like with other big leagues in the world such as the English Premier League and others worldwide.
Efforts from the South African Football Journalists Association to have an eyeball-to-eyeball conversation with the PSL headhonchos have seemingly fallen on deaf ears.
The sooner the league bosses understand that covering a football match is not only about arriving at the stadium to write a match report and then head home, the better.
The clubs’ media officers have worked very hard in providing content but with all due respect, there’s a certain way journalists work and a certain way they get their scoops.
We also go to stadiums to network, to talk to the coaches and the players and to meet our contacts, so there’s a huge need for the PSL to reconsider its stance and open the doors again, obviously with limitations and a set of Covid-19 guidelines to be followed.
By the way, soccer writers do adhere to social distancing, wear masks and sanitise.
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