Players union demands investigation into Soweto Derby brawl

The South African Football Players Union (SAFPU) is calling for an investigation into the brawl between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates officials during a pre-match warm-up at the Soweto Derby on Sunday.

In a statement, SAFPU said where wrongdoing is found, the perpetrators must be brought to book without fear or favour.

702's John Perlman spoke to Mthokozisi Dube, Editor at the FarPost, about the incident, which came ahead of the match ending in a 1-all draw.

"Whenever the two clubs meet, the rivalry is always big and some of the things are expected, but yesterday, it affected the players getting prepared for the match. The warm-up initially was disrupted because of the fighting between the two sides.

"Usually, what happens is the two teams warm up: one team warms up on one half, the other one on the other half. So it happened that Pirates officials encroached on the half where Chiefs players were warming up. And officials from Chiefs then pushed back and it became a bit of an ugly thing.

"Not the best thing for a fixture of this magnitude. The Soweto Derby is watched all over the world. I've got journalist friends from Ghana, Uganda who were here to watch the game and are telling this story. So, it doesn't give a good picture of the Derby," said Dube.

At the same time, Dube noted that his friend from Uganda raved about the Soweto Derby. He said in Uganda, they don't have a game that can attract plus/minus 90,000 people and you've got a mix of Chiefs fans sitting next to Pirates fans. "He's never seen that," said Dube.

To listen to the full discussion, click the audio player below:

Meanwhile, 702's Mongezi Koko spoke to Nqobile Ndlovu, Founder of CashNSport Research & Advisory about the delays some fans experienced on Sunday which saw officials taking the decision to postpone kick-off by 45-minutes. Fans complained about congestion and tickets.

Ndlovu said there's no way a fan can guarantee a good experience at the Soweto Derby unless you are in a suite. "And for you to get into a suite you're going to have to be invited or you're paying at least R5,000 to get into a suite...

"An average fan, you have to go through a very clunky ticketing system called MyTicket which relies on connectivity and has had numerous problems.

Even stadium management themselves have tried to educate people on how it works, it still doesn't work properly.

"And even this last event there were stations and booths which didn't work and fans were waiting outside for over an hour just to be let in because the ticketing system didn't work properly.

"And then on top of that there's no dedicated seating so therefore you can't then include an option with the ticket purchase to say: "I want a beer delivered to my seat during the game" because they just wouldn't be able to do that. So the match experience is just not great in terms of South African football at the moment.

"Things such as getting to the loo is a problem because there's just too many people and there's no control of those people once they get into the stadium," said Ndlovu.

He also called on the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa to do more to encourage rail access to FNB Stadium.

To listen to the full discussion, click the media player below: