Jomo Sono slams Supersport… calls them an “Animal Farm”

So Jomo Sono doesn't like the objectivity (or lack thereof) of Supersport presenters. Sono wrote a letter to Supersport criticising the commentators and their lack of understanding of the game and their ability to provide non-biased commentary.

Having not watched the game or in fact too many Jomo Cosmos games in my life time I will take Jomo Sonos' word for it when he says that Jomo Cosmos are ignored by the mainstream commentators... but maybe he should focus on winning a few more games before being treated as the underdogs in this whole thing?

A quick look at the log says Jomo Cosmos are in last place having played 20 and won 2 so maybe he has bigger headaches than a little bit of negative media coverage?

Sono's letter is below:

Dear Sir/s



Re: Analysts in game between Jomo Cosmos and Orlando Pirates.

We sincerely hope this finds you well. This serves to make you aware of our displeasure and or unhappiness at the three so-called studio analysts that were assigned to the above-mentioned game which took place at the Rand stadium, Rosettenville, on Wednesday, December 2 2009.

The three were ex-players Basil Steenkamp, Mike Ntombela and Doctor Khumalo while the show’s host was Thomas Mlambo.

The game, which was billed to kick-off at 7.30pm, only started about 45 minutes late because of the inclement weather which also caused the postponement of three other fixtures around Gauteng.

For the record we won the Absa Premiership game 1-0 which was scored in the second half by Siza Dhlamini from the penalty spot.

From the beginning of the programme the three gentlemen were tipping Pirates to win, which we have no problem with since they were basing their argument on the fact that we were bottom of the log while our opponents were in the chase for the league championship.

What gets our goat, however, is what transpired at the end of the game with the result being in our favour.

When Mlambo asked for their opinions in order to wrap-up it became obvious that these so-called analysts do not know the meaning of objectivity and were so subjective it would be laughable were it not so serious.

They almost all, without fail, pointed out “reasons” which they claimed led to Pirates’ loss and nothing to tell their viewers why we won despite their earlier predictions.

The fact that they all believed that we won because Pirates had problems with the weather, had to wait for 45 minutes after warming up, had certain players unavailable because of one reason or the other, was rather perplexing.

We, and any other neutral or objective person, would tell you that the reasons advanced did not affect Pirates only – there were two teams involved here. Cosmos played the game under the same conditions. It should also be noted that both teams started the game with eleven (11) players each and ened the game with the same number of players having made the necessary substitutions allowed by the rules of the game. If some teams cannot play because someone is not available for selection it should not be the opposition’s problem. Mind you, we also had suspended and injured players who could not take part in the said match.

Granted, Pirates have more supporters than us but our followers also watch games on Supersport and we believe they also have the right to hear and understand how their team fared from ex-professionals who are being touted as analysts. It would actually be interesting to find out how these people are assigned to particular games by your esteemed company.

We do not want to read the wrong message and jump to likewise conclusions. We will keep our thoughts on that to ourselves.

What we can say, however, is would it not be to everybody’s satisfaction if all are treated equally instead of the present Animal Farm situation – where others are obviously more equal than others?

For the record, let us point out that Cosmos also does have ex-players who are still loyal to the team and can represent it with aplomb on any panel of analysts if need be.

Why an obviously biased panel was chosen is beyond us. But, for them not to think they have a duty to Supersport viewers to give them objective, unbiased and level-headed analysis is inexcusable and unforgivable. Television is a powerful tool and should not be abused by people with sinister motives and personal agendas.

We thought we should bring all this to your attention and hope for a speedy reply to these concerns.

There were reasons why we won, unfortunately none of your studio analysts were able to pick that up and tell your viewers which is a pity really as it means people are being short-changed by Supersport and that’s not an image that you need in light of the other good work that you are doing.

We hope our concern is noted and will be acted upon in the spirit of FAIR PLAY.

We thank you.

Yours in sports

Jomo Sono
(Chairman – Jomo Cosmos)