JOHANNESBURG - It's not the first time Giovanni Solinas will walk into an empty stadium in his coaching career, which is why the Kaizer Chiefs coach said this week it will be a daunting task attempting to beat Polokwane City in Durban on Saturday.
Amakhosi have been ordered to play their next three domestic fixtures (one of them suspended for 24 months if they are not found guilty of the same offence in that period) in KwaZulu-Natal behind close doors as punishment for crowd violence at the Moses Mabhida Stadium during their Nedbank Cup semi-final defeat to Free State Stars in April. Football is beautiful when you have supporters inside the stadium, they create and ambience and an atmosphere. Without them there, it’s a funeral,” Solinas said.
Both Chiefs and the Moses Mabhida Stadium management stand to lose out on the revenue from their existing partnership - having the Glamour Boys play their “home” matches some 600 kilometers away from their first-choice venue, the FNB Stadium.
Solinas revealed that the penalty by the PSL is not unusual for him, but he did not elaborate on when exactly did he have to guide a team to victory without their spectators there to cheer them on.
“We are going to need a special kind of preparation for this match, a special mentality,” the coach explained. “Because the atmosphere, without the supporters, is not real. It will be a strange atmosphere. So this means we have to prepare psychologically also for this situation.”
NOTICE!
Kaizer Chiefs will play the next Absa Premiership home fixture against Polokwane City FC behind closed doors.
No supporters (of any team) will be allowed into the stadium nor precinct.
The game will be broadcast live on SuperSport 4. #Amakhosi4Life pic.twitter.com/sGIOGQuekl
— Kaizer Chiefs (@KaizerChiefs) October 3, 2018
@superjourno