The annual pre-season contest has just completed its sixth edition, after taking over from the Vodacom Challenge and the Telkom Charity Cup in 2011.
“I think the choice of Chiefs and Pirates is not driven by the fact that Carling Black Label favours these two teams, versus the other teams in the PSL,” said Govindsamy. “When we developed the Carling Cup we wanted to create one day where fans get to be the coach.
“And if you look at Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates – and I’m stating a fact – they represent 80 percent of the fans in South Africa. If we had a knockout competition, it would lose the beauty of the derby and keeping it pure.
“So what we’ve done is we’ve invested in making sure that it’s a derby; it’s highly competitive. Carling is a very masculine brand, so competitive spirit is at the heart and we want to keep it as pure as we can.
“[Adding more teams] would make it a multi-day contest, otherwise, and what we’ve created is a property that’s really unique. So unique that many other countries are actually looking at replicating what we’re doing elsewhere.”
