Sports legends analyse SA sport

IN a panel curated by Multichoice Africa, long-time SuperSport presenter Neil Andrews, former rugby captain John Smit, retired Bafana Bafana player Shaun Bartlett and chief executive officer of SuperSport at Multichoice Group Gideon Khobane discussed their careers, the future of sports in South Africa and the future Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The discussion formed part of the Multichoice Africa Media Showcase held in Johannesburg, South Africa last week. Smit was well known for leading the South African rugby team, the Springboks, to victory in the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, but has since retired and is now doing work with SuperSport.

“I’ve been fortunate to spend time around the Springboks during their training for the 2019 World Cup,” he said. “There’s a competitive edge about them. They’ve gotten their old identity back.” Impressed with the new team, Smit feels that the upcoming World Cup will be incredibly intense and encouraged the masses to go see the team in Japan.

Let’s Talk Soccer

In October this year, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana team scored a 6 – 0 victory in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifications over Seychelles. Bartlett felt that although the conditions were bad, the team has been more psychologically trained, thus giving them an upper hand over their opponents. “To go forward with your team, it takes a lot of sacrifice,” he said.

“As a national team, you have to get a squad together. In my years, we stayed together for three years and the biggest factor is to have that support. In our game in 1995, the rugby team supported us. When things go wrong, you need that 10th man.”

Bartlett confirmed that the Bafana Bafana team as been getting better by the day and has become a team who are difficult to beat through resilience. “2019 will be interesting. For us, we need to be there as a country and show that we have progressed as a national team.”

From a Viewer’s Point

Interestingly enough, Khobane mentioned that Multichoice is one of the biggest funders of sport – fuelling N$2 billion a year into it. “We see ourselves as a production company because we do all the productions ourselves,” Khobane said of live sports.

“Sports fans are passionate so we try to get the best. It’s about being authentic. Our business is pan African and there’s no doubt that football is number one, but some of the other biggest drives in SA is rugby and cricket.”

But here’s something new: Although Multichoice has secured the rights for major sports in the country, the company will be screening Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) sports on its SuperSport channels. “We’ve got all their live events. So expect broken nose, broken teeth, etc,” Khobane stated.

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