Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) coach Johnny Ferreira reckons that the fact that Limpopo has six teams in the Motsepe Foundation Championship might work against them.
Six out of the 16 teams in the first division currently participate in the promotion league.
They are Baroka, Black Leopards, Venda Football Academy, TTM, Magesi and Polokwane City.
As it stands two of the clubs (TTM and Polokwane City) are in the top three while the rest of the teams are in the bottom half of the league table.
Out of the 30 matches in a season for each team, 10 will be against their local rivals and Ferreira believes the clubs will ‘cancel’ each other and therefore making it difficult to have more teams competing for promotion.
“I had the same scenario down in Cape Town when I first moved in 2000 and we had about five or six teams in the Western Cape in those years and every team wanted to beat each other,” said Ferreira.
“The teams that travelled from up north, i.e., Jomo Cosmos and Black Leopards, were laughing at us because we were just cancelling each other out and I think the same thing is going to happen in Limpopo.
“These teams are going to try to beat each other because of that strong rivalry. There is a lot of pride and you always want to beat this next-door neighbour.
“Forget about the bragging rights, you always want to beat the teams from your area,” he explained.
“But I think overall in the biggest scheme of things, TTM are on the right track.
“You must know that if you beat your opponents in the same region in your first game then you have won the game psychologically. It puts other teams in your area under heavy pressure.”
