Cape derby a chance to revive rivalry
The revival of the Cape Town City brand offers the opportunity to rekindled an rivalry
EVEN though the derby matches between Cape Town City and Hellenic were played out in the apartheid era in the whites-only National Football League‚ they attracted a dedicated audience across the colour bar.Old timers of all races speak nostalgically of Friday night football at a packed Hartleyvale or Green Point Stadium, cheering on their favourites even if those classified "nonwhite" were hoarded into special enclosures.Acres of newsprint were taken up on the eve of a derby, and the game dissected across the city afterwards. Rarely were they tame affairs.But the demise of Cape Town City in 1978 ended the fierce rivalry and even though the city has had several top-flight clubs since‚ they have not been able to recreate a similar intensity.Ajax Cape Town and Santos played in a Cup Final at the Athlone Stadium in 2002, but failed to fill the venue in the way the old derby clashes used to pack them in. Chippa United‚ Mother City and Seven Stars also made it — all too briefly — before f...
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