It is about time that Kaizer Chiefs “supporters” are made to really pay for their disgusting, thuggish behaviour of throwing missiles at their coaches whenever they are unhappy with a result.
Season after season, the club has had to pay fines after being found guilty for their fans bringing the Premiership into disrepute via expressing their anger at defeat in unsporting ways.
Chiefs have the responsibility to ensure their supporters are well behaved, and fining them is thus also relevant.
Premier Soccer League (PSL) prosecutor Zola Majavu must be tired of it all.
There is no doubt that he has lost count of the number of times he has had to convene a disciplinary hearing involving Amakhosi for the bad behaviour of their fans – and he has to send a much sterner message this time around.
Majavu is heading to yet another one next Tuesday after Chiefs fans pelted an assortment of missiles towards their new coach Molefi Ntseki after their 1-0 league defeat to TS Galaxy at Mbombela Stadium over the weekend.
We’ve seen this movie before, right? And most of us can predict its ending.
It is highly likely that Majavu will find the club guilty, slap them with a monetary fine and maybe add another stronger suspended penalty on condition that no similar incident is repeated for a particular time.
Has this stopped the unruly behaviour of Chiefs fans?
But has this stopped the unruly behaviour of Chiefs fans? The answer is a big no.
Of course, there is nothing as frustrating for a football fan to see their beloved team lose matches, and when that particular team is one that has generally been successful, accepting anything but victory is all the harder.
Yet, that is no reason to resort to the hooliganism that has become the mark of the fans of a club whose slogan is Love and Peace.
There is nothing loving and peaceful about throwing bottles, cigarette lighters or any type of missile at the club’s coach.
Frustrating as it might be for Chiefs fans to be witnessing their team going through the worst time in the club’s 53-year history, there is no justifying their behaviour.
That they have continued to vent their frustrations in this way – just about every coach before Ntseki in the last eight years of their failure to win a trophy has had to run the gauntlet of the fans’ anger, ducking projectiles thrown at them as they went back to the dressing-room after a defeat – is because the PSL’s disciplinary committee punishes the club and not the club’s supporters.
Of course, it is the club’s responsibility to make sure that their supporters behave at matches – even if they are the away team – and they should be made to pay for it.
But I think the best way to make the fans suffer is to banish them from matches. Therefore, have Chiefs play their next home match, if not their next two, in an empty stadium.
Yes, you are still punishing the club in doing so, but the fans will feel it, too.
Given that we live in a time of technology and most of these matches are televised, how about the PSL DC using footage of the match to identify some of the culprits who threw the missiles and then ban them from attending matches all season.
It can be done, and this will send a warning to the rest of the PSL clubs’ fans that thuggish behaviour will not be tolerated at stadiums.
Losing is part of the game, and if you are not able to accept it, if you are going to throw missiles onto the pitch or at your club’s coaches, you have no place at stadiums.
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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