South African fans get to pick their teams

South Africans are known to be passionate about democracy. Now they're taking "rule by the people" somewhere it hasn't been before – the football field. For one game, anyway...

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Fans of South Africa's most popular football clubs, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, have been doing what sports supporters universally love talk about – selecting their teams – for the Carling Black Label Cup taking place in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Since the beginning of June, Chiefs and Pirates fans have been voting, either online or via text message, to select the starting line-ups for this Saturday's clash at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium (the venue known to 2010 Fifa World Cup fans as Soccer City).

Voting in Carling Black Label's "Be The Coach" campaign closed at midnight on Wednesday.

The announcement of the teams will take place at SuperSport's Studio Six in Johannesburg on Thursday evening, with players and officials from both clubs in attendance.

A live broadcast of the announcement will take place on SuperSport 4 on DStv from 7pm South Africa time.

Coach not impressed
Kaizer Chiefs coach Vladimir Vermezovic is not impressed with having the team selection taken out of his hands, and has expressed his distaste for the format.

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Interviewed by SuperSport this week, he expressed a number of misgivings including the fact that participants in the voting had to buy a beer to be able to vote. This, he says, removed the votes of children which, in turn, affected the number of votes received by someone like Siphiwe Tshabalala, who is very popular with the kids.

Vermezovic also questioned the positions that some players had been selected to play in.

While the Amakhosi coach had his concerns, the situation is a dream come true for many fans, and the match is sure to draw an excellent crowd.

Orlando Pirates coach Julio Leal has embraced the fixture, saying it is an opportunity to work on tactical and technical matters ahead of the start of the PSL season.