Prominent Kaizer Chiefs supporter Wilson ‘Dr Ntjebe’ Tshabalala has added to the growing calls for footballers to be allowed to return to stadiums as he is disappointed that he will miss yet another chance to watch his beloved team in action in the Nedbank Cup this weekend against TS Galaxy.
Ntjebe has admitted to not taking kindly to watching matches on television as opposed to going to the stadium as he was used to and is pinning his hopes on South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene.
Football fans and journalists, except for a limited few, haven’t been to the stadiums to watch matches since the Coronavirus outbreak in Mzansi in 2020, except for a few occasions where exceptions were made like during certain Bafana Bafana matches, as well as in the MTN8 final and the DStv Compact Cup recently.
“As a football supporter, I get frustrated all the time about not being able to go to the stadium to watch my team. I am used to going to the stadiums week-in and week-out and now it’s very painful for me not being able to go to the stadium to watch matches. Watching football at the stadium helps me in different ways, and even if I am stressed and I go to the stadium no matter if my team is winning or losing, the stress goes away, and I get relieved. There is nothing that makes me happy now without watching soccer at the stadium as I am a non-smoker and someone who doesn’t drink and my only hobby is soccer. Soccer is in my blood,” said Tshabalala.
“It is so painful to depend on television for watching soccer because TV and watching the game live at the stadium is very different. We just hope that maybe later today as the president of the country will be making a speech (Ramaphosa will be delivering the State of the Nation Address this evening) that we will be included in the plans of the country by being allowed to go to the stadiums again. Even if they talk about the economy, soccer helps a lot to improve it because when the stadiums are open our people who sell their products at the stadiums get to benefit. We respect Covid-19 and its regulations because some of us lost friends and relatives to the disease and we are worried about it, but life must go on. We are appealing to communities to respect the regulations and follow the protocols, they must sanitise and wear masks, but life should go on and we need to go to the stadiums,” concluded Tshabalala.
