It’s time we got off the “why is Cape Town City taking the game to Athlone Stadium?” when they know how Kaizer Chiefs are.
Why shouldn’t they when it’s supposedly the stadium closest to the people?
It’s thus extremely annoying that I have to write about the problems that crop up when hosting a Chiefs match, to be quite honest with you guys.
The Sowetans describe themselves as ambassadors of “love and peace”, yet they have been punished every single season since Covid for their fans’ raucous and sometimes violent behaviour.
It’s happened a lot of times before that, but I just wanted to highlight just how serious it’s been of late.
In this season, the PSL was forced to punish Chiefs two months into the new campaign because of three incidents of fan violence.
The PSL fined them R300 000 and made them play a home match against Cape Town Spurs behind closed doors.
This is a really troubled club at the moment and their fans are proving to be worse and far from everything that the great club stood for with each passing year.
Cavin Johnson’s span’s form this year hasn’t been great neither - in four outings they won only once, registered two draws, and lost 3-2 against archrivals Orlando Pirates in their last match.
So now we have to sit here worried about how Chiefs fans will react when City beats them?
Although the home side hasn’t been having the best of times since play resumed after the Afcon break either, they won’t need any extra motivation to bounce back to winning ways when they face Chiefs in front of their nervous fans.
There were already over 7000 tickets sold at the time of writing this article, which is almost half of the 20 000 maximum crowd allowed at the historic football venue.
𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 💙
— Cape Town City FC (@CapeTownCityFC) March 27, 2024
🔘 Fans are encouraged to get to the stadium early on Saturday.
🔘 Tickets can be bought at the following TicketPro outlets: https://t.co/hPvpJl4ZTe
🔘 No tickets for sale at the stadium.
🔘 No entry in the Athlone… pic.twitter.com/qUEpdngywg
The Citizens told Diski Business that they expect to put up the sold-out sign on Good Friday.
But you just watch, even if City announce that there won’t be any tickets sold at the venue, Amakhosi fans will still go to the stadium to try and score last-minute tickets to watch the country’s most popular team.
They will all be hoping to find a people with spare tickets that they can take off their hands.
That’s also how they get taken for a ride and get sold promo and sometimes fake tickets which end up getting them into trouble with the men in uniform.
The countdown for the eagerly awaited return of the #DStvPrem is underway! 🤩
— Official PSL (@OfficialPSL) March 26, 2024
Let's delve into the stats for the upcoming clash between @CapeTownCityFC and @KaizerChiefs.
What are your predictions for this one? pic.twitter.com/21bbygVZCR
It’s actually gotten to the point of being exhausting, knowing that year after year, whenever Chiefs are in Cape Town there will be issues and problems.
Last time Chiefs were in Athlone, we ended up doing a social media search to connect an hopelessly drunk teenage girl with her family.
She didn’t know her name and couldn’t remember or tell the police and City of Cape Town officials who she had come to the stadium with.
What is the likelihood of something like that happening again this weekend? Very high.
Next Kaizer Chiefs Match!
— Kaizer Chiefs (@KaizerChiefs) March 26, 2024
🏆#DStvPrem
⚽️Cape Town City FC vs. Kaizer Chiefs
👕First Team
🗓️Saturday 30 March 2024
🏟Athlone Stadium
🕞15h30
📺SuperSport 202
🎟R80 - Ticketpro, Spar - https://t.co/nSBHeT3ji1#Amakhosi4Life #Khosified pic.twitter.com/lI3jQFOFH5
We can also expect to see grown adult men behaving badly and embarrassingly so.
There will be scenes of fans stumbling around Athlone streets drunk and topless.
There will be unnecessary traffic caused by taxis blocking lanes while their passengers hang out the car dancing to loud music and swinging quarts of beer in the air.
If you dare to attempt a citizen’s arrest or try to talk some sense to them, you will be met by defensive anger and possibly even get hurt.
So no, please don’t do that.
What is it that Chiefs fans want to hear or be done for them to come correct with their misbehaving? What do they want to be told so that they can do the right thing?
If you don’t have a ticket, please stay at home and watch the game on TV.