Current PSL head of Marketing and Communications Ntambi Ravele has made her intentions of improving the working relationship between the various role players within the PSL as well as National First division, so as to map out the super high way for club football in South Africa.

Most recently the league held a workshop for all the coaches in the PSL, which was attended by Amakhosi coach Ernst Middendorp that was followed up by a workshop held with the media. Present at the media workshop were representatives from the clubs Amakhosi magazine as well as its official website www.kaizerchiefs.com.

At the beginning of this week, the league conducted another workshop involving all Premier League and First Division teams. The workshop was held at the Birchwood hotel in Boksburg East of Johannesburg was used as a think-tank between the league and the clubs.

A three-member team consisting of Marketing Manager Jessica Motaung, Brand Manager Dara Carroll with Communications manager Thebe Mohatle completing the Chiefs trio represented the Amakhosi. Issues discussed ranged from club websites through to the rights of the sponsors and obligations of teams towards the sponsors and vice versa. Dara Carroll The Amakhosi brand manager was particularly pleased with the fact that the workshop allowed for marketers and brand managers from the various clubs to make acquaintance and network with each.

“I think the fact that we could get together with teams from the 1st Division and other PSL clubs really assisted us in being able to firstly get to know each other first hand and thereafter, we were able to discuss the various challenges that we as clubs face” was Carroll’s observations.

One of the main aims and objectives of the workshop was to find ways that clubs could help to increase attendance at games. Various input was given and the overall consensus was that the entertainment value of PSL and NFD matches had increased over the past couple of seasons. The standard of the matches has definitely improved and teams needed to leverage off the fact that the league is far more competitive at the present time, which has resulted in an improvement in the overall package of the league.

Clubs were also guided on how to become user friendly and interact with their supporters more openly and more frequently, by creating open lines of communication with them. One of the keynote speakers at the workshop television commentator and well-known football statistician Mark Gleeson commended The Amakhosi in this respect, especially their dissemination of information to the clubs supporters. He also said that clubs could easily deal with supporters seeking information, by creating a website which needs to be updated regularly and must be informative as well as entertaining.

“Over the past year I think Chiefs have improved the content on their website and it has most definitely made it easier for supporters to gain correct information into what was happening on a daily basis within the team. In addition I do feel that teams can use statistics, various facts and figures to help make fans aware when the club or individual players reach certain milestones.

The workshop which ended on Wednesday evening has gone a long way towards ensuring better co-operation between the clubs and the league in understanding, setting and together implementing ways of achieving set goals and objectives which will add value to the lives of fans who make the league what it is.

With more workshops planned for the coming months the open dialogue created between the league and the clubs can only help to assist the further strengthening of league football in South Africa. With the world's attention presently focused on the country as the days roll on towards the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the enthusiasm shown by the league and the clubs in working together in improving the overall experience of fans whether attending live matches or on television bodes well for soccer in the country.