DOES PUBLIC RELATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICAN FOOTBAL STILL EXIST



Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs fans during Soweto
derby at a packed soccer city stadium http://www.iol/ .co.za



Public Relations is a very broad profession that can work in any sector even in sports. Public relation practitioner is responsible for the brand image, and communicating with the target audience of the organisation on their behalf. It is still the same in football or any other type of sports Public relations practitioner's role in sport is to coordinate the flow of information from the teams to the press and feed the public hungry for sport news, team data, visibility and filling the stadium with fans. They also play an important role in the promotion, increasing the public interest.

A public relations practitioner do everything from writing newspapers stories and the press release to organising press briefing, preparing press guides and maintaining teams and its players so as to throw the most positive light on a situation. They can do little to wave away the critics from the media but they must work very hard to sooth players painful reaction to the public critics. Unique PRP realised that it is better to inspire that degrade just like as Confucius said " he who throws mud losses ground". They must conduct community projects whereby the team will interact with the public, people feel good when they are noticed.

Recently it has no been the case in South African football, teams have not been marketing themselves in a good way. This is the reason why we have been witnessing empty stadiums during local football games. Back in the days the public relation practitioner of teams where interacting with the community with the respective teams supporters this is the reason why stadiums were filled to full capacity during games, recently the only game given a huge marketing platform is the Soweto derby it is the only game that attract a lot of crowed why is it not the same for other teams what is the public relation department of those teams doing.

In the European leagues we see supporters filling the stadiums to full capacity why is it not the case for South African football. The 2010 World Cup generated a lot of interest in South African football and Africa as a whole high quality stadiums were build for this prestigious tournament. It was well marketed through out the world as a whole the stadiums where filled, it is seen as one of the best world cup ever. The question is that did it leave a legacy behind? if so why are we not following it why build fancy stadiums they we do not go to them to support our teams?

THE ROAD TO LONDON 2012



SASCOC EMBLEM   :  www.sportindustry.co.za



THE 1OO DAYS MARK

Yesterday South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee celebrated the 100 days mark before the start of the 2012 London Olympic games. The ceremony was held at Golf Reef City which symbolise "going for gold" by team South Africa. These prestigious ceremony saw the appearance of Deputy Minister of Sport Mr Gert Oosthuizen and the first and second Vice Presidents of SASCOC Ms Hajera Kajee and Mr Les Williams, also the respective participants of team South Africa. Now there are 99 days left to the highly anticipated Olympic games.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS COME TO THE PARTY

On the 17th of April Tuesday South African Airways(SSA) chairperson Cherly Carolus announced that the company will take all responsibilities of the transportation of the South African team to and from the London games. She stated that over her dead body will let a foreign carrier transport our National team. This agreement come after a long discussion with SASCOC and this will see the team provided with relevant flight tickets to their destinations during the tournament. These shows great commitment from local business after the sudden interest of a Chines company in the National team.

SASCOC DOING BUSINESS WITH CHINES COMPANY

There was an outburst from the country more respectively from the department of sport as they wanted to know why SASCOC went on to do business with a chines company to wear team South Africa on their participation at the 2012 London Olympics. These is because it was expected that it will stick to South African productions as it is a proudly South African team. SASCOC President Gideon came in to the organisation defence saying that the Chines company was not only dressing the team but also sponsoring it with $4 million for their departure to London, as there was no South African companies interested in sponsoring the team. If the country is not happy with the sponsorship deal then why are they not standing behind their National teams instead of complaining.  The seems to be a lot of support for the South African team on their road to London will they take advantaged of this?

HOW WILL THE TRANSFORMATIN BRING CHANGES?



 CAMPAIGNING :PSL CEO Stanley Matthews  
Picture taken form : http://www.iol.co.za/          



Newly chief executive Stannely Matthews who was appointed shortly after the depature of Zola Majavu, from the PSL CEO position have raised eyebrows in South African football news with the proposal of changing the timing of the league season form August to May back to February to November. The timing of the league season was changed in 2000 because the National team could not obtain players from their respective Eroupean clubs as our football calendar was not the same as that of European clubs which resulted in them refusing the release players.

South African clubs have a poor record in the Confederation of African Football since Pirates last won  the African Champions league in 1996. Since then the competion have been dominated by North African clubs like Esperance and Al Ahly which their season also runs from August to May. Speculations have surfaced the football news that South African clubs perform poor in the competion because of the prize money as they play for more than what the Champions league offer here in South Africa. What happened about playing for the pride of South Africa?

The rules of the Confederation of African Football is that teams performing in the competion must register 25 players before the kick-off of the tournament while five more players will be added midyear before the competion reach the league stage. Which means that South African teams must register their players six month before the competion, the same strategy teams like Al Ahly and Esperance have been using and they have been doing well in the tournament. South African teams have failed to make use of this system as they sign new players during the last minutes of the January transfer window, so they can not register enough players. Is the blame of South African teams on the timing of the league and how will this new implitation affect the relationship of the National team with European teams as it is also not doing well?