SuperSport died a slow and painful death

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7 hours ago

If SuperSport were a person, the post-mortem report would say they succumbed after a long illness
The sad demise of SuperSport United has been coming for a long time and it doesn't come as a shock to me that it has ended this way.
It is bitterly disappointing to see one of the well-run clubs in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) disappear — but the reality is the club has been dying a slow and painful death over the past few years.
Matsatsantsa, as they were affectionately known, meant a lot to South African football but along the way they contracted a disease that proved to be incurable and ultimately led to their death.
Over the past few years, the club made staggering amounts of money with the transfers of players like Daine Klate, Thuso Phala, Aubrey Modiba, Grant Kekana, Ronwen Williams, Sipho Mbule, Teboho Mokoena and Shandre Campbell.
But they did not adequately reinvest the money in the club and that was always going to catch up with them because it was not sustainable.
The main reasons for the decision to sell have not been made public but I think the club was a victim of the change of direction by owners at SuperSport International who are realigning their priorities.
If SuperSport were a person, the post-mortem report would say they succumbed after a long illness.
The cause of death was not a head-on highway collision, a stab wound from a bar brawl or mismanagement — they have been battling illness and unfortunately failed to respond to treatment.
It may have come as a shock to many but in reality this has been coming for a long time, and when the painful end was confirmed on Thursday afternoon, it was without doubt the end of an era.
Thursday started with the new owners meeting the players at their Megawatt Park training base in Johannesburg to break the news.
That was followed by a media statement confirming speculation of the past few years that SuperSport International was no longer interested in running the club.
For some of us who cut our teeth in journalism covering the club during the days of coaches Bruce Grobbelaar and Pitso Mosimane training at Technikon Pretoria (Tshwane University of Technology), it is sad the club has ceased to exist.
As the news filtered in, I remembered the late Thomas Madigage who was seen as the glue that kept this team together throughout the years, working closely with Grobbelaar, Mosimane and later Gavin Hunt in the early 2000s.
I remember the days when SuperSport used to mesmerise teams at the Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria with players like Michael Utting, Rudolph Seale, Ronnie Zondi, Madigage, Chico Lawrence, Ernest Chiwali, Michael Araujo, Zane Alexandra, Tauya Mrewa, Roger Lupiya and many others.
I recall days when my friends and I would spend money meant for food on tickets to watch SuperSport at Caledonian Stadium.
It is unlikely but one hopes someone will buy the name and revive the club because it is an institution that has been synonymous with professional football in the country for more than three decades.
If you speak to some of the players who played for the club, there are those who share disappointing stories but an overwhelming majority talk about how professionally it was run.
Things will never be perfect but as far as I can remember, there were not many shenanigans linked to the club, like players not being paid on time or not meeting their obligations to the league.
On the pitch, United grew to be a dominant force in the PSL and no one will forget they won the league three times in succession under Hunt.
In more than three decades, they won numerous trophies and at one stage they went with the moniker 'cup kings' because they featured in many finals within a short space of time.
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Over the years, players like Kaitano Tembo, Phil Evans, Daine Klate, Ronwen Williams, Denis Onyango, Siboniso Gaxa, Teboho Mokoena, Dean Furman, Denis Masina, Sipho Mbule, Cavan Sibeko, Peter Khoabane, Hlompho Kekana, Shandre Campbell, Thuso Phala, Ricardo Katza, to name a few, went through the gates at the club.
In the bigger scheme of things, the demise of SuperSport should be a worry, because over the past few years they produced quality players who went on to play for Bafana.
Among the Bafana players who participated at the last Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Ivory Coast, Ronwen Williams, Ricardo Goss, Grant Kekana, Aubrey Modiba, Siyanda Xulu, Teboho Mokoena, Thapelo Maseko, Zakhele Lepasa and Oswin Appollis had a history with SuperSport.
Apart from the players, there were also people behind the scenes like Stan Matthews and the rest of the management team who ensured the club was run professionally.
As I reflect on the demise of a once-great club, maybe this is an opportunity to put emphasis on the continuing South African phenomenon of buying and selling of football clubs.
Over the past few years, sporting institutions like Platinum Stars, Wits University, Moroka Swallows, Bloemfontein Celtic and Ajax Cape Town have disappeared because people bought those statuses and renamed the clubs.
Maybe it would be better if clubs could be bought but their names and locality stay the same to preserve sporting history. Wits, for example, was sold one year shy of its 100th anniversary.
I am left with memories and I wonder what the 'godfather' of SuperSport and the late Madigage is saying wherever he is about this turn of events.