Safa CEO – PSL cancellation would wash all our hard work down the drain

The PSL Board of Governors are set to meet on Friday to make a final decision on the new campaign, with talk of making it null and void growing louder after the league’s plan for a July 18 restart was blocked by Safa.

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Motlanthe, however, in a meeting on Friday with the South African Football Journalists Association (Safja), reiterated that Safa were ready and willing to start the season on August 1.

“It will come very much as a surprise for us (if the season is cancelled),” said Motlanthe

“All we (Safa and the PSL) have agreed on for the last three or four months, that work would all be going down the drain.”

The PSL’s main reason for wanting to get the season started last weekend was that they need six weeks to complete the campaign, and had an agreement with Fifa only to extend player contracts until the end of August.

Safa, however, released a statement on Wednesday saying Fifa had given them permission in a letter to go beyond that August 31 deadline.

One of Safa’s reasons for delaying a restart, meanwhile, was that they needed more time to get the referees ready for the restart, and Motlanthe said that that is all now on schedule.

“We have called the referees and the first batch are arriving tomorrow (Thursday) to start with medical tests,” added Motlanthe.

“But as far as the association is concerned, we have been able to deliver all the services from our side. The league said they still need to consult their stakeholders, the date of August 1 had not been agreed by them (yet).”

The problem of compliance, in terms of health and safety protocols in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, has also clearly been a problem for Safa, who say they are the ones responsible, according to a government-approved PSL/Safa joint liaison task force report, should anything go wrong.

PSL clubs have returned to training, under strict compliance guidelines, and the league intend to play the season out in a Biologically Safe Environment in Gauteng. But there have also been plenty of positive tests for coronavirus in PSL squads.

Motlanthe added that a proposed meeting between the PSL’s compliance officer Michael Murphy and Safa’s own compliance officers Dr Thulani Ngwenya and Mlungisi Ncame had yet to take place.

He added, however, that the confusion over whether the league had indeed been cleared to start the season came from government, with different letters apparently sent to the PSL and Safa.

The PSL have said that they received a letter from the sports ministry on June 23 clearing them to restart the season.

“I have chatted to the DG (of Sport and Recreation) Vusumuzi Mkhize and said to him that if the information is there, let him share it with out compliance officer. Either we get the information … or if we don’t … we are exonerated from our responsibility agreed by the JLC.

“It looks (now) like we are a stumbling block, but we are making a return as easy as possible and … we are happy if the league and the government take the responsibility”

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