Durban — Kaizer Chiefs’ struggles against Royal AM continued as they lost the Macufe Cup 4-2 on penalties at Free State Stadium over the weekend.
The Macufe Cup, which regularly saw the participation of the now defunct Bloemfontein Celtic, featured Durban-based club Royal AM this year. Thwihli Thwahla is owned by controversial businessperson Shauwn “MaMkhize” Mkhize who purchased the PSL status of Celtic in 2021, bringing down the curtain on Siwelele who were one of the oldest professional clubs in South Africa.
The game was not received well by Celtic fans, with the defunct club’s national supporters’ chairperson Mabena Pule insisting to The Sowetan that fans of the team felt disrespected as a result of Royal AM’s presence in the competition.
“We feel we’re being insulted by the organizers to invite Royal to come and play Macufe Cup. We don’t want to find ourselves near the stadium because we don’t want anything that would associate us with Royal after they took our team to KwaZulu-Natal,” said Pule.
It does not make sense as to why the event was held during the international break. Events such as the Macufe Cup are more suited to being held during the pre-season, giving opportunities to teams to test fringe players and allowing players to gain fitness.
It is likely that by holding the tournament now, it would have been viewed as an annoyance to teams as players could get injured. Furthermore, fan interest would have been lower as a result of star players being on international duty.
IOL Sport