Kickoff (Cape Town)
17 December 2008
The row over the use of Mpumalanga's Atlantic Stadium continues unabated after three months.
Fears are that if the PSL or the World Cup LOC does not step in, the matter could become international media fodder for critics ahead of the 2010 Fifa showpiece with innuendos of racism still being alive and well in South Africa.
In the latest development Black Aces CEO Peter Koutroulis alleges that the Mpumalanga Rugby Union has kicked him out of his office at the stadium.
Koutroulis tells KickOff.com that the club is also now being forced to travel more than 250km to Nelspruit to play their home games at KaNyamazane.
"I have been kicked out of my offices at the stadium. They (the Rugby Union) say the office is going to be renovated and be used by their president.
"However, I doubt this because it is just a small office measuring four by four meters and there are bigger and many other offices in the complex.
"We still have a serious problem with the rugby people who just seem to want to get rid of anything to do with football at that stadium.
"When they were kicking me out they promised to give me one of the suites so that I can convert it into an office, but that hasn't happened; so I am now forced to do business from the boot of my car.
"I have received a letter from their lawyer booting me out. The furniture that I had in the office is already out."
Koutroulis says dealing with the Puma rugby officials is difficult as they are not willing to co-operate.
"We can't train at the stadium and now we cannot even play our home matches there because they say they have rented the stadium out for some other functions.
"This is crazy because before we relocated to Witbank that stadium was as good as dead, but now after we revive the vibe through working with the community we get a cold shoulder.
"We are now forced to train at the power station where there is a lot of smoke which affects players. These are the kind of things that we don't need in our football, especially when we are hosting a World tournament in the near future.
"Worse still is the fact that when you try to speak to the rugby officials they refuse to talk English, only Afrikaans," he says.
Aces have fought a running battle with the Rugby Union since before September.
During September, the CEO of the Mpumalanga Rugby Union, Arrie Myburg, said that the differences had been resolved.
These centred around an increase in charges for the use of the stadium and the periodic replacement of the rugby poles for goal posts.
Arrie also denied that Aces had been told that they could not use one of the change rooms at the ground as it was for 'whites only'.
"Do you honestly think that we, as a member of the South African Rugby Football Union, could get away with making such a ridiculous statement?" Myburg stated.
"It is absolute nonsense and completely untrue. All change rooms are available to teams."
Amazayoni PRO Thabo Moroape alleged at the time that the attitude of the stadium manager Steven Brits towards black people smacked of racism.
"Since arriving and taking over as stadium manager, Brits has been disrespectful towards blacks. The organisers of the recent Cosafa tournament in Mpumalanga can bear testimony to the attitude of this young man," Moroape said.
When KickOff.com called Brits he refused to talk to us. Efforts to get comment today also drew a blank.
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