BBC SPORT | Football | Africa | Apathy hovers over Cosafa final



By Mohammed Allie BBC Sport Online

South Africa may be on the verge of winning the Cosafa Cup - their first competitive title since 1996 when they lifted the African Cup of Nations - but it's hard to detect any national enthusiasm for Saturday's second leg of the final against Malawi.

Newspapers in Johannesburg, where most South African football followers are concentrated, have afforded only low-key coverage to the game with hardly any pre-match buildup.

"There isn't a great deal of interest in the Johannesburg media," said Clinton Asary, a soccer writer with daily newspaper The Star.

SA take advantage against Malawi

The Cosafa Cup is very much regarded by the South Africans as an opportunity to blood locally based players into the international arena.

And given that all the top foreign-based players inevitably are not called up for Cosafa Cup duty, it's hard for the fans to get enthusiastic about the competition.

Support for the national team has been dwindling in recent years, especially in Johannesburg where an embarrassingly low crowd of only 10,000 turned up for last November's friendly against Egypt.

Safa have wisely decided to take the game to Durban where Bafana Bafana have always drawn big crowds.

Malawi
Malawi are not expected to mount much of a challenge
In May this year, 50 000 fans turned up to watch the team play Madagascar in their last warm-up match prior to their departure for the World Cup in Korea and Japan.

Whether another full house will turn up for the game against Malawi remains to be seen, especially since Bafana Bafana already have one hand on the trophy courtesy of their 3-1 first leg win in Blantyre.

But the game falls into Celebrate Durban Week and local fans are expected to show their appreciation by going to the stadium in droves.

However, while there may be some enthusiasm for the game in Durban there's a sense of ambivalence in the rest of the country.

England's South Africa date

Many fans, especially those supporting Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, would prefer the Cosafa Cup to finish so that their teams, who have been inactive due to international callups, can get their league campaigns underway.


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