‘THEY EF’D UP SPURS’: Fans are unhappy with Efstathious at Ikamva
What I can tell you about the guys here at home is that Cape Town Spurs don’t have too many friends left in the PSL. Truth is, they never did. I don’t know why. But it’s like that.
Ari Efstathiou has endured the worst of it all. But one thing about Ari, he was accessible.
Alexi is different, he prefers for people to follow channels. So to him, he’s doing the right thing by just speaking through the club’s official media office. It’s like dealing with the city council.
It’s not a bad thing to speak through the official media channels, engagement as a follow-up necessary. Alexi prefers to respond line by line or with bullet points.
The club’s fans have now done the same, posting an anonymous post on their Facebook group page.
They, too, followed his lead and listed their questions and concerns as follows: “We, as the backbone of this club, the ones who stood with, behind and for the club would like to understand, as you stated...you are ‘responsible for all the successes and failures’... what is the way going forward.
“You sir, as CEO, should know by now what and who we are as the brand’s Fans and Supporters and we don’t settle for what’s going on ‘off and on the pitch’ as the coach stated in our last home match.”
And so it goes into what they as fans have put in for them not to be made part of the process.
He took over a club that was the work of some smart and genius dribbling by John Comitis. The sad part was that it was not a pleasant takeover.
With Comitis in the driving seat, backed up by his father and brother George, Ikamva was a buzzing football campus. Everybody who worked there dressed in full club attire. It was everything a European football club was.
It was well planned from the stairs where a youngster kicks the ball through the doors, which had a hole that resembled a ball.
That represented their development process where a youngster enters those doors as a raw talent. And then, as you walk in you are greeted by a large eliminated image of the logo, hidden beneath the see-through floor.
The logo of course is something of a work of genius itself, drawn with 11 lines for 11 players of a football team. Mind-blowing!
Then there was the cabinet, full of trophies mostly collected by the club’s youth teams. On your immediate left is a wall of fame, where the boots of players earn their senior Bafana Bafana national call-up while at the club.
Boots of David Kannemeyer, who came up with some of the country’s first true ‘golden generation’ from U23 to the senior team.
Not much is said about how great the leftback integrated in what was a highly technical group of players that Mzansi was producing at the time.
South Africa was blessed with creative wingers at the time, guys like Jabu Pule and Steve Lekolea, Stanton Fredericks, the list is long.
You see what an amazing football story the club was?
Then you would be greeted by the friendly face of Nuraan, who you would tell who had come to visit, she’d advise you to sit and ask what you’d like to drink? The lovely Nozuko would bring it and hand it over to you with her shy smile before the casual Thabiso “Shooz” Mekuto walked out to welcome you.
Things just haven’t been the same since the Efstathious took over, which has seen Comitis set up Cape Town City.
It was one of the country’s great football success stories and that was felt by partners in Amsterdam.
That relationship ended under Ari Efstathiou’s leadership. It has now become a place where the gates and doors are closed intentionally.Interaction with fans, something the club was known for, with its annual Supporters’ Day, a big feature.
It’s where you’d see George and John at their most human because they could play. They’re so competitive and chirpy, it’s hilarious.
Our match as the media against them as club staff and coaches.
Now you are not allowed anywhere near the pitch. The club has become more and more distant and might become impossible to support in the not-too-distant future.
I’m not even sure what the relationship with Kannemeyer is like now.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za