Chairperson of the Chelsea Supporters Club South Africa, Mr. John Slabber on how the club originated.
“After watching the ’94 FA Cup Final all by myself I thought, there is NO WAY I can be the only Chelsea supporter here in South Africa who had to witness such a blatant biased referee and see Peacock hit the crossbar in that match,” says John.
He recalls phoning MNet and arranged for his contact details to be aired. ”Within minutes of that I was writing names & contact details like it was crazy. (This was the pre email era!)”, he said.
Reflecting on the early days, he said that once enough people where organised, the Cape Town guys arranged to meet at MNet at its headquarters at N1 City for the first match of the 1994/95 season where they provided beers & snacks for us.
“Current members who were at that initial get together were myself, Bill “The Legend” Fussel, Roger “The Voice” King, Arthur Botha and Grant Wilson.”
“We continued to meet after that at various venues as Premier League matches involving Chelsea were screened once every 4 to 6 weeks and then there was the odd Cup match in between (if we progressed. How times have changed!),” said John.
“We have since grown in numbers and the Johannesburg (Keg & Filly) and Cape Town (Mitchell’s Brewery) supporters meet on a weekly basis to watch a sleeping giant emerge,” said John.
