Michaelson Ntokozo Gumede

By Ntokozo Gumede

Journalist


Pull the plug on current PSL season

The mixed messages from the South African Football Association and the Premier Soccer League are  really annoying.


It has got to a point where one has lost the appetite of football because one moment you are excited that local football is nearing its resumption, and the next moment, you hear that there has been a U-turn of sorts. When sports and recreation minster Nathi Mthethwa gave football the greenlight to resume training and therefore decide when it would be suitable to resume playing, it felt like a lot of load off one’s shoulder as we got the sense that the end to football starvation is near, but little did we know that we’d go another full month…

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It has got to a point where one has lost the appetite of football because one moment you are excited that local football is nearing its resumption, and the next moment, you hear that there has been a U-turn of sorts.

When sports and recreation minster Nathi Mthethwa gave football the greenlight to resume training and therefore decide when it would be suitable to resume playing, it felt like a lot of load off one’s shoulder as we got the sense that the end to football starvation is near, but little did we know that we’d go another full month of July without any action as Safa propose that the game resume in August.

The Premier Soccer League proposed that the Absa Premiership, GladAfrica Championship and the Nedbank Cup resume this coming weekend but Safa, it seems, pulled the referee card on the PSL’s proposal, insisting that the match officials are not ready to officiate from this weekend, stating their level of fitness, or lack thereof, among other questionable reasons.

If ever there was one time where it was okay to have the season declared null and void, it would definitely be now because inasmuch as the game could resume, the coronavirus is spreading at its peak in the country and it being rumoured to be airborne, I feel the best option is to just pull the plug on the current season.

Safa are trying to play the big brother of South African football and are seemingly cracking the whip on the youngster rebel brother, the PSL, and really, we cannot have the kind of behaviour between two institutions that we regard as the custodians of South African football.

If they cannot act in the interest of the football lovers all over the country, they should just leave it at that and halt the entire season as suggested in a story in our Mgosi section, saying PSL chairman Irvin Khoza is contemplating cancelling the season. If those suggestions are close to being true, I am putting my weight behind the Iron Duke – cancel the whole thing and reduce the spread.

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