NO ONE NEEDS THE IM-PERFECT MARSHALS’ CAT FIGHT

MBABANE – For two consecutives weekends at the Somhlolo National Stadium, an embarrassing commotion between Royal Leopard and Mbabane Swallows has unfolded.

The shameful episodes between the warring marshals has somehow stolen the thunder from the exciting Castle Premier Challenge two-legged semi-finals pitting the two current local football giants in many aspects.

Swallows and the police side have been the two dominant sides not only in the past two seasons, but over the past decade, taking home 10 trophies each over the period. This, aided by the collapse of two traditional giants, Mbabane Highlanders and Manzini Wanderers, have made the battle between Tinyoni as Swallows is affectionately called, against Ingwe Mabalabala a tie to die for in the local football calendar.

Two seasons ago, Swallows won a treble of trophies in what was their best season ever, but Leopard were back to dominate the previous season winning an unprecedented quadruple, having assembled their best team ever in years.

When they clashed in both the first and second leg of the Castle Premier Challenge semi-finals in the past two weekends, the rivalry seemed to have escalated to unseen heights. But, the actions of the two teams’ marshals in both incidents cannot be condoned anymore. Last week, referee Thulani Sibandze was allowed to get away with murder when he failed to implicate the teams over a mini scuffle at the end of the first leg encounter.

Never mind that the very same incident held the entire refereeing crew hostage inside the pitch for over five minutes as the marshals shoved each other and in the process hurling all sorts of threats and insults at each other. It was a nasty incident, that was no doubt not good advertisement for the product that the PLS brand desires so much to sell to the corporate community, going towards the organisation’s Vision 2022.

Last weekend, it was a battle between the two teams’ warring marshals, which the police officers on duty handled well without any fuss. This weekend, it boiled over, as police officers this time were also subjected to a lot of abuse from the marshals. The scene was not pretty for our football in the eyes of an onlooker.

It might look trivial to those in football, as nothing but a minor misunderstanding over allegations of muti usage. However, the sprinkling and counter-sprinkling of substances by these marshals from both teams is not doing our football a world of good. Instead, it is now proving to be a breeding ground for violence conducted at soccer games. It is a pity that the perpetrators of this unsportsmanlike behaviour are the very people entrusted with ensuring that their various club supporters behave.   

I know that it would be unfair to apportion the blame entirely to the PLS for this germinating conduct which they did well last season to nick in the bud. Apart from ensuring that the tournament’s rules and regulations forbid such misconduct, they have entrusted the responsibility to enforce the above rules to referees, Match Commissioners and Stadium Reps who religiously draw allowances for services rendered. But what happened? All three people decided to ignore such incidents last week, and it remains to be seen if they have captured this weekend’s incident for the culprits to be brought to book.

The PLS can only reinforce last season’s policy of banning marshals in the dressing rooms and tunnels leading to the pitch because they are proving to be the catalyst of violence as opposed to being peacemakers.

Both teams are guilty of assigning warmongers to serve as marshals, because at the end they only help in painting a bad picture of the game. This is the Premier League, and the conduct of everyone from players, officials, and supporters should just portray that level professionalism. This weekend’s incident unfolded before the eyes of FA President Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa and CEO Frederick Mngomezulu who watched from the VIP box.  There were also a couple of PLS executive committee members who might have cringed in embarrassment at the incident. It is not too late to do something about it.

In fact, former PLS CEO Zwelonke ‘Sport’ Dlamini once hired a private security company to man the tunnels because there was a growing concern that some police officers on duty might be compromised when a police team like Royal Leopard was playing.

It was fair to all parties, knowing that most of the forces clubs administrators are senior officials in the forces. The same arrangement should be implemented going forward, because there are more tension-filled games ahead in both the league and the Castle Premier Challenge Cup final next weekend. (The Pandora’s Box will be back next week)

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