PSL chief hails media effect

Johannesburg - Premier Soccer League CEO Stanley Matthews was full of praise for the South African media after he embarked on a country wide tour to explain his vision for the league.

Matthews, a former SuperSport United director of football, said he was delighted with the way local media have lifted the domestic game, and says he is looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership.

"I hope we can have a good open relationship. I come from a football and media background, when I was at SuperSport, not only the football club but also the television product," he said during a round-table meeting this week.

"So I like to think of myself as media friendly. I appreciate the role that you play in sport."

One of the main topics Matthews is set to combat is the poor attendance records at local matches, but the PSL chief says even though the numbers are not ideal, research has shown that they are improving.

"If I look at research today, I can say that the year-on-year growth of spectator attendance in South African football has been 7.9 per cent. Other major sports, both rugby and cricket, over the same period, are in the negatives," he added.

"Sometimes I think we only have a tendency to focus on the bad. We are also moving forward, but we're not going to rest our laurels on that. It's still not good enough for us and we still want to take it to the next level, so we're not going to stop there."