South African Football Association (SAFA) confirmed on Tuesday that the domestic football league may restart in the first week of August 2020, that would be over four months from the time football was paused.
Natural Soccer League (NSL) which runs local football under the Premier Soccer League (NSL) banner in SA had initially set July 19 to resume the league.
From the discussion and trade-off meeting/s between SAFA and PSL officials, the former came up trumps, showing its mettle. Inextricably bound by national priorities, the latter did not have its way.
Nonetheless, the home-football days are not far (from the prior intended date) to reigniting, once again, the exhilaration of the avid fans through the re-emergence of the biggest professional sport in the country, the continent. The world. Football.
Supporters of the SA’s football leagues have not seen their favourite clubs in action ever since the games were suspended in March owing to the coronavirus pandemic outbreak swamping the world by a ruthless gust.
In a media conference on Monday 13, PSL Chairman Irvin Khoza said the remainder of the fixtures are going to be completed in a 6-week period in one province – i.e. Gauteng.
In a bid to salvage the 2019/2020 season and starve off the brutal pandemic, all the 32 clubs from the Absa Premiership and GladAfrica Championship Leagues will descend to Gauteng. As reported here on Monday, all participants will be tested twice before the resumption of the competitive games.
In addition, a Covid-19 or Health Compliance Officer as required by government has been appointed and drafted in to aid the smooth rebooting of the season held in midair. The PSL Chairman also assured the nation that the league will ensure all role players and partners adhere to the novel coronavirus health and safety protocols and stipulations.
From the guardian of domestic football – SAFA – and the operators thereof – NSL/PSL – they will await the finalisation of the restart from the Minister Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa. At the moment, the department has allowed a select non-contact sports to return to play competitive games.
The government’s [most certainly the Department of Health] role is to ensure that sport/s bodies comply with Covid-19 health and safety standards as devised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The global mother body of football, FIFA (Federation of International Football Association), wants finalisation of these matters too.
Given the sharp surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths in South Africa, there is mounting pressure to see to it that all activities in the local front tick all the boxes. Not least the boxes but also have contingency plans to handle any opportunistic flare ups of the highly infections epidemic.
At the moment, Gauteng has more coronavirus cases than any other region in the country. Accounting for 35.9% of all cases, it is firmly the hotbed of Covid-19.
Seen in this way, the choice of Gauteng as a central location to round up all PSL fixtures, may have forced SAFA’s hand to push PSL’s original July dates for restarting the leagues to early August. For a good measure, just as a precautionary step.
It will, without doubt, give teams ample time to reorganise and as thoroughly as possible. Moreover, the logistics and relocation permutations which goes with security all manner of venues and necessary supplies especially for clubs outside the Gauteng province.
For now though, it will be pleasing to see the championships of the most coveted leagues be won in the field of play than in the boardrooms, or courts for that matter.