Tim Sukazi celebrates Carling Knockout with reservations over innovations

The Carling Knockout, an extension of Carling Black Label's innovative and largely successful Carling Cup-friendly fixtures, maintains its strong focus on involving fans, who will now be more involved in competitive football than ever before.

Sukazi is, foremost, delighted to have the 16-team premier division cup, formerly known as the Telkom Knockout, return to the local football calendar.

"We are quite glad as TS Galaxy. I'm almost certain all other the [Premier Soccer League] PSL clubs are happy that finally we get an opportunity to play the League Cup Competition. Even better the tournament comes with some innovations," said Sukazi.

One dampener of the launch held in Hyde Park, North of Johannesburg, on Tuesday afternoon, was the overall prize money of the tournament has yet to be declared.

"We would've liked to know in advance the prize money, so as we become excited we know exactly what becomes the main driver and motivation. I'm not too sure about the decision to hold it back. The people who organise these things know much better, they'll tell you exactly the reasons behind pronouncing the prize money later. But the best preference, in my view, is to know about it quite early as the competition starts."

A new innovation that will surely draw the excitement of all participating players is the Man of the Match – a prize that will now carry a mouth-watering R100 000 incentive.

"To be honest, I really like the 100 thousand prize money for players. Well done Carling, finally, our players will get the sense of recognition, never mind the motivation. So that's great. [The players] deserve it, it's a tough league."

But Sukazi has questioned the beer maker's decision to have fans vote for the recipient, as he feels the concept favours teams who have the greater number of supporters to do the voting.

The winners of the Carling Knockout, which will be decided in the final scheduled for 16 December 2023, will later face a Carling squad containing players from any of the other 15 teams, as voted for by fans, at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on 6 January 2024.