The fact that Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, the traditional football powerhouses of South Africa, have not been doing as well on the domestic front and their forays on continental club competitions, has been less than impressive, and a demonstration that the power base has shifted. Since the inception of the current league in the 1996/97 season, both Chiefs and Pirates have won the league eight times. Chiefs last won the league in the 2014/15 season while Pirates last won it in 2011/12.
Money bags Mamelodi Sundowns have changed the dynamics of South African football by winning it an unparalleled 11 times and halfway through the season, they are set to make it 12 and a fifth on the trot.
What has played itself out in recent weeks, suggests that the tide is changing and changing towards an era where garden-fresh minds and animated bodies need to take over the running of the league and by extension, clubs.
When Covid-19 hit our shores and we went into unchartered territory, the league leadership ought to have seen ahead obviously along government guidelines. The Chiefs scenario, where the bulk of their playing staff was infected, should have been avoided in the first instance. One has to think back to 2020 to the Polokwane City vs Sekhukhune United match where the former could not field the required number of u/23 players owing to Covid-19 infections. Then the league had issued a circular instructing all teams that non-availability of players due to Covid-19 infections would not be an excuse to not honour fixtures.
If the same circular is still valid and applicable it can only mean that Chiefs need to face the wrath of the PSL DC. My contention is, a set number of players must be infected for a match to be postponed and rescheduled or else the collective wisdom the board of governors, which is the supreme decision making organ of the league and comprises the chairpersons of the member clubs, would convene in an extra ordinary meeting to change the statutes to temporarily factor the effects of Covid-19 and therefore allow the PSL executive to implement resolutions.
That regrettably has not happened and one wonders what the delay is all about.
Change is imminent and it has to happen faster than the speed of Sonic the Hedgehog while listening to Hugh Masekela’s song Change.
