Bakoena Sports Blog

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana On Thursday 19 March 2020, Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Dr. Irvin Khoza stood in front media in Kempton Park to confirm as predictable the suspension of the football matches until further notice. The confirmation of the suspension of the league cup matches in the PSL and Glad Africa Championship is going to be severe to the entire value chain of football economy. The league further took a decision to discontinue the 2019/20 MultiChoice Diski Challenge season with immediate effect. While a week earlier, the PSL intended to continue playing behind close door, the development of the COVID-19 and its spread in the country left them with no choice but to suspend until further notice. The virus is expected to peak in South Africa in April, raising questions and doubt over any possible resumption of the league in April or even early May. The restriction imposed as a result of COVID-19 such as movement of people, prohibition of gathering of m

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana Social media has been one of the most transformative, game changing tool and a leading buzzword of the last decade. Unsurprisingly, Kaizer chiefs are leading social media platforms with a combined following of 5 million people on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Pirates comes second with over 3 million on the four platforms, while Sundowns has just over 1 million. The rest of the 13 Premier Soccer League (PSL) have less than half a million each, with Supersport United with over 4 hundred thousand at fourth, while Stellenbosch fc is at the bottom with just over 50 thousand followers across the social media platforms.   The figures for Chiefs and Pirates are impressive enough to put the Soweto clubs in the top 100 of Global Football Digital Benchmark, with Chiefs at 62 and Pirates at 78. However, despite this impressive figure by Chiefs and Pirates, research has identified that there is need for clubs to invest in social media communica