LESSONS FROM 2014 SOUTH AFRICAN PREMIER SOCCER LEAGUE AWARDS

I have always been an advocate of positive change and as a lover of the beautiful game - Football, i will never relent until one of my article on the Nigerian Professional Football League is taking serious and to good use.

I was able to watch the South African Premier League awards LIVE on Saturday, 19^th of May, 2014, maybe because the Italian league matches were not interesting as at that time but it was worthwhile to watch the awards.

We all complain about the attractiveness and lack of organization of the Nigerian League and watching the awards yesterday, we can learn so much from the activities of the awards for our own subsequent awards.

5 lessons will be discussed below and i believe the officials of any subsequent awards can learn from: 

1.    TIME TABLE AND PUBLICITY: Two weeks before the end of the Absa premier league season in South Africa, the schedule and time table of the awards was all over in the news maybe because DSTV is a South African outfit but nevertheless the adverts and promotions for the awards was massive. Even my uncle who is not keen about football knew about the awards. It was well planned and the general public was carried along. This looks simple to achieve but great work has to be done.

2.    PRESENTATION: For any ceremony or engagement to be effective and active, good presenters plus experienced ones must be able to spark up the audience. Robert Marawa, Thomas Mlambo, Carol Tshabalala and Minnie Dlamini did absolute justice to the awards and it was never a dull moment while watching on TV. Like we all know in Nigeria, we have gifted and talent Sports Presenters including myself.

3.    PRICE MONEY: Most fans kept wondering why most of the stars of South African Football stay back at home and play in their league, it just boils down to the financial back up and salaries of the players. And these particular awards came with huge price money. This will definitely encourage the winner and those that missed out to perform much better next season. Like we know, money plays an important role in the career of all these footballers. No one hates money.

4.    ORGANISATION AND STAGE: Though we still can’t compare the organisation and stage design with the European counterparts but as Nigerians, we can learn some positives from the South Africans. The stage design as well as the organisation of the awards night was simple but still massive. For a show not to be clumsy, i believe a proper organisation is highly essential.

5.    REPORT AND FEEDBACK: We can’t take the fact away,we do organize top notch sports event in Nigeria as well but we lack the availability of reports or feed-backs after such events. And we all know, we need reports to get the feed-backs from the fans. I believe after every show, comprehensive reports should be available for the fans and in this light, fans can then criticism and give possible suggestions about the events.

This article is not to mock or discredit the hard works of the League Management Company or Nigerian Sports Bloggers (like me) but i believe it’s not a bad idea to learn the positives from one of our African neighbors.

Here are all the winners on the night:

Footballer Of The Season: (R250 000 prize)

 Sibusiso Vilakazi (Bidvest Wits)

Absa Premiership Players’ Player of the Season: (R150 000 prize)

 Sibusiso Vilakazi (Bidvest Wits)

Absa Premiership Goalkeeper of the Season: (R50 000 prize)

 Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs)

Absa Premiership Young Player of the Season: (R50 000 prize)

 Keagan Dolly (Ajax Cape Town)

 Absa Premiership Coach of the Season: (R75 000 prize)

 Pitso Mosimane (Mamelodi Sundowns)

 Absa Premiership Absa-lutely Awesome Goal of the Season: (R50 000 prize)

 Hlompho Kekana (Mamelodi Sundowns)

Absa Premiership Top Goalscorer: (R25 000 prize - less than 15 goals)

 Bernard Parker

Nedbank Cup Player of the Tournament: (R150 000 prize)

 Sibusiso Vilakazi (Bidvest Wits)

Nedbank Cup Most Promising Player of the Tournament: (R50 000 prize)

 Kwanda Mngonyama (Bidvest Wits)

Telkom Knockout Player of the Tournament: (R200 000 prize)

 Mogakolodi Ngele (Platinum Stars)

MTN8 Last Man Standing: (R80 000 prize)

 Robert Ng’ambi (Platinum Stars)

NFD Top Goal scorer of the Season:

 David Zulu (Black Leopards)

PSL Chairman's Award:

 Mato Madlala (Golden Arrows Chairperson)

Referee of the Season: (R50 000 prize)

 Zolile Mthetho

Assistant Referee of the Season: (R40 000 prize)

 Edward Madidilane

Kindly drop suggestions in the comments box.