The Premier Soccer League has stood by its choice to hold the Nedbank Cup final between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates at Moses Mabhida Stadium after receiving criticism from fans who found it difficult to buy tickets.
This comes after fans expressed anger over problems they encountered while trying to purchase tickets for the game, which were later revealed to have sold out within 90 minutes of their release.
Bertie Grobbelaar, who is the Managing Director for Stadium Management South Africa, was roped in as an independent auditor by PSL to assist in resolving the ticket issue. He confirmed that 41,000 general access tickets that were made available sold out in an hour and a half.
The venue was announced during the draw after the semi-final match between Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns on 13 April, and it was met with criticism from football fans who were hopeful that the showdown would be at FNB Stadium, which has a bigger capacity compared to Durban’s 55,000-seater.
PSL CEO Manto Madlala defended the governing body’s decision during the joint press conference on Wednesday, adding that no venue in the country will ever be big enough to accommodate these two bulls.
Madlala said PSL planned and complied with the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events (SASREA) Act, which regulates all sporting events in the country, and ‘it’s all system go’ on their side.
“There’s no venue in this country that’s big enough for the derby, and what the act says,” She said.
“The SASREA Act that governs all the events that are hosted says you plan to capacity irrespective of what capacity is, as long as your plan addresses the capacity issue and the safety issue based on that capacity.
“That’s all it takes and that’s exactly what we’ve done, we’ve planned to capacity and we’ve been given a tick that we’ve addressed all of that, because there isn’t a venue where the FNB (stadium), Bertie (Grobbelaar) will tell you the subscription is far more than what the venue can hold so there’s no venue that can take that,” she concluded.
The match is set to kick off at 15:00, and fans are encouraged to arrive early to avoid delays.