Mr Sol's Blog - An insiders view - Leone Stars vs Bafana Bafana Oct. 2010
Mr Sol's blog – An Insiders View.
Leone Stars and Bafana Bafana walking on to the pitch at a full house National Stadium Freetown October 2010 (Photo credit: Fred Claye)
I had been booked on the Friday BMI flight from London to represent sponsors Mediatel/Hummel at the match. I arrived in good time at check-in with 2 large boxes (70kg) of some last minute hummel kit required by the team.
Calls
had been made in advance to Kevin McPhillips/BMI regarding the ‘boxes’ so I was a bit
rattled when told the ‘boxes’ would have to be re-packed to get the
weight down by 6 kilos. After quickly acquiring a small case, at an
exhorbitant price, I set about the re-packaging area in full view of
other travellers, scouring faces for anyone I recognised, there were
none.
The re-packed ‘boxes’ were checked in and I was hoping that would be it as regards the ‘boxes’.
On
arrival at Lungi, I was met by our local rep. Everything was going
surprisingly smoothly, got through passport control and collected the
‘boxes’ within 20 minutes of landing. I cast a satisfied glance towards
the Bafana Bafana team and officials who were sat, looking very bored,
around the luggage retrieval area whilst the ‘boxes’ were being hastily
wheeled towards the helicopter ticket office. A sudden loud voice shook
me out of my state of complacency, “Excuse me Sir! Excuse me Sir! Where
are you going? I need to check those boxes!â€. No matter what our local
rep explained the official was insistent. A couple of customs officials
started opening the boxes. In seconds calls began to rain down thick and
fast on the officials’ various mobile phones with him retorting
repeatedly – “Yes Sahâ€, “Yes Sahâ€, “Ah Noh Bin Know Sahâ€- and without
another word to us ordered his men to reseal the ‘boxes’.
On arrival at Aberdeen, the ‘boxes’ were duly collected by an SLFA official, gratefully that was the last I heard or saw of them.
On
Saturday morning I went to the Leone Stars training session at the
National Stadium. A crowd of at least two to three thousand was already
in there and they kept coming for the later Bafana Bafana training session. I
must admit on close inspection the pitch was not in good condition, but
good footballers can adapt to play on any surface. What was noticeable
was that this group of Leone Stars seem closer to the fans and, correct
me if I’m wrong, a lot of them have graduated to greater things through
initially playing for home –based clubs, East End Lions, Blackpool,
Ports Authority(my team), Edwards, FC Kallon….. There was a seriousness
about Leone Stars in the way the went about their tasks. Little did I
realise there were severe rumblings in the camp as they abruptly left
the field and boarded the team bus.
On Saturday evening went to a
dinner at the Country Lodge comprised of journalists from both sides.
Paradoxically the head chef was South African. Banter was great between
the two sides, leaving one with the impression the match would be close.
On
Sunday morning, match day, I took part in a sports discussion show on
Radio Kalleone explaining the role of Mediatel/Hummel and the story
behind the collaboration and sponsorship.
Mediatel are
principally a telecommunications company with POP’s in London, Sydney,
Delhi, Hong Kong and Auckland but also have interests in Sports and
Arts.
Mediatel were partners in bringing to London’s West End the South African smash hit musical Umoja during 2001.
During
a business trip to Freetown in 2007 a director of Mediatel picked up on
the nations fervour for football and returned to London determined to
do something about it, culminating in the invitation of Leone Stars to
London as part of the bicentennial celebrations for the abolition of
slavery in 2007.
During preparations for the match against
Millwall, whilst looking for sponsors, Hummel expressed an interest in sponsoring the Leone Stars kit
and if possible for a longer fixed term. Hummel at the time had no
links with Sierra Leone and asked Mediatel to facilitate their
requirement. Negotiations were started with SLFA and after 3 years(No
easy task dealing with SLFA as SABC found to their detriment) an
agreement was reached in July 2010 for full kit sponsorship of
the team. Leone Stars were able to wear, for the first time, the
specially designed home kit against Bafana Bafana though the jersey had
been available since January 2009.
For Christian Stadil, Hummel owner, the sponsorship fits in line with with his company’s outlook – Company Karma.
“The
spine of hummel is radiating positive company karma and spreading good
energy. Hummel always try to give something back to people, causes and
stories that we believe in.â€
Christian told me that the film
‘Blood Diamonds’ had an effect on him and that we should not be
surprised if we get to see Leonardo Di Caprio in the jersey to help
promote his good causes for Sierra Leone.
Hummel are also closely
linked with Save the Children’s Fund and make a donation to the Sierra
Leone chapter on international sales of the jersey.
I was asked
about the website(www.slfasl.com) and how it came about. As part of the
agreement Mediatel were to assist in SLFA communications. Fortunately,
in the light of an absence of international tv coverage, a radio feed
had been tried and tested to broadcast the match in it’s entirety
online. Mediatel will continue to develop the website with features such
as online shopping, videos, podcasts, news and as much statutory
information SLFA can supply to populate the site.
News kept filtering through about troubles in the Leone Stars camp and this was hours before the match.
I
was ushered out of the show to get my highly prized Leone Stars jersey
and head for the stadium. The crowds to the stadium were overwhelming.
Once there it took over 2 hours to get to our seats.
It was
refreshing to see the fans had taken to the Hummel brand. There was a
hierarchy of the type of jerseys fans wore. At the very top was the
original official Hummel home jersey mainly worn by expatriates,
Lebanese Sierra Leoneans and Presidential stand ticket holders. Next were
the original Hummel away jerseys and then the plethora of fake Hummel
jerseys to be seen everywhere.
The noise in the stadium was
deafening, vuvuzela’s, drums, chanting and clapping far outweighing
the piped music. All went up a notch when Leone Stars came out to warm
up. I was surprised at the booing of Bafana Bafana – I suppose it all
added to the intimidating atmosphere for them as they notably took a
very long time to come on to the field – I feared they had packed up and
fled.
Leone Stars (Photo credit: Fred Claye)
The match came and went in a blur. In the first half we
controlled midfield. Rodney Strasser was a revelation ala
Makalele/Vieira. The Bangura’s Mustapha and Mohamed up front were full
of tricks outwitting the deep lying ponderous South African defence time
and time again. Bafana offered little up front, I only remember them
having one shot, that in the first 10 minutes which Caulker dealt with.
In
the second half, Bafana withdrew and literally parked the bus. Khune
their goalkeeper kept feigning injury after every one of his
multitudinous saves, running the clock down
Cynical time-wasting
after half-time must have been ‘Pitsos’ gameplan after seeing Bafana
could not match Leone Stars in ball play – regardless of the state of
the pitch.
With time running out the great and the good around me
had settled for the draw and started filing out. 1 minute to go– the
ball found it’s way to ‘Poborsky’ – a one on one with the keeper – the
keeper dived – ‘Poborsky’ had an open goal from 10 yards – the crowd had
begun to celebrate in anticipation – ‘Poborsky’ shot – high and wide –
ref blew – Game over. Bafana escaped defeat by the skin of their teeth
and they know it.