Something like… “Keep of the Grass, Butana Komphela plans to smoke it” is happening at Loftus….

The Bulls and Cheetahs could be forced to play their remaining home matches in the Vodacom Super 14 competition elsewhere than at Loftus Versfeld and Vodacom Park – and that could be a financial headache for the Bulls in particular who have to host three crowd-pulling matches against the Lions, Sharks and log-leaders Crusaders over the next three weekends.

The Blue Bulls Company (Pty) Limited CEO Barend van Graan, has to appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport on Tuesday, together with the Free State Rugby Union’s president Harold Verster and the president of the SA Rugby Union (Saru), Oregan Hoskins.

Their appearance before the committee stems from the concerns of the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, Butana Komphela, who has personally inspected the playing pitches at Loftus and Vodacom Park where World Cup soccer matches are to be played and is unhappy about the condition of the surfaces.

Van Graan declined to comment at this stage. However, over and above the loss of income from the three matches that might have to move if Komphela gets his way in denying them the use of Loftus, there is the matter of their thousands of season ticket holders and suite owners who have to be considered. This could lead to a huge refund demanded from the Bulls – and even to possible legal action.

The Bulls’ home field has been described as “Fortress Loftus” where they have now won 15 consecutive matches – and losing this ally will be a major blow in their quest to successfully defend their title.

As it is, the Bulls have already made contingency plans should they qualify for a home semifinal and final. Those games will be played at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

The situation with the Free State Rugby Union, whose Cheetahs franchise will also be affected in three home matches, is less serious. They will not stand to lose nearly as much as the Bulls.

The Cheetahs are second to last on the log; they do not draw the numbers the Bulls do; they have less season ticket holders affected; and they don’t stand to lose tens of millions from home play-offs.

Whether Komphela will be able to enforce his wish is still debatable, as the World Cup local organising committee has an agreement with Saru that the scheduled Super 14 games could go ahead and that the unions had will hand over the stadiums in good condition by May 20.

Hoskins confirmed they have to appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport. “I have asked the Bulls and Cheetahs to get expert opinions on their respective pitches, so we can present it in Parliament,” was all Hoskins was prepared to say.

Surely, if rugby can be played on that pitch at Loftus, then the Sissyboy-soccer-poofball round-ball games can be played there too, in fact a pitch takes much less punishment in soccer than with rugby.

Don’t bend down Barend van Graan, stand strong… let the freegin soccer fraternity concern themselves more with soccer matches, the state of Bafana Bafana’s readiness and aspects like the low occupancy rates (1%) in Durban Hotels during the Soccer World Cup, the State of our roads during the Soccer World Cup, the chaos at our Airports.