Safa have permission from Fifa to extend PSL season beyond August 31
The South African Football Association say that they have received a letter from world footballing body Fifa, allowing them to extend the 2019/20 Premier Soccer League season beyond the end of August.
Tebogo Motlanthe
“Fifa has written to the South African Football Association advising them that they can extend the completion of the current Premier Soccer League season in terms of the Transfer Management System (TMS),” read a Safa statement on Wednesday.
READ MORE: PSL season on brink of cancellation.
“In the same context, Fifa has given Safa the mandate to amend the start of the PSL next season (2020/21), and this may require the association to amend the registration periods provided in the TMS.”
This comes as the Premier Soccer League Board of Governors are set to meet on Friday, to discuss the possibility of declaring the 2019/20 campaign null and void. The PSL wanted to finish the season by August 31, and chairman Irvin Khoza declared in a press conference last weekend that they needed a minimum of six weeks to get it done.
Khoza said the PSL may not be able to pay their monthly grants to clubs at the end of July, while he also indicated that they did not know if they could extend the player registration period beyond August 31.
The PSL then said in a statement later in the week that they were ready to kick off the season on July 18. This did not happen, however, with Safa saying their referees would only be fit and ready to play by August 1, while also suggesting that there were compliance issues that still needed to be resolved, in terms of creating a Biologically Safe Environment (BSE) for a return to play, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe reiterated on Wednesday that referees would be ready for a season restart on August 1.
“We are glad with the clarification we got from FIFA and we have already started preparation of the referees. They will arrive at the camp in batches and I want to assure everyone that the match officials will be ready, come 1 August 2020 when the PSL kicks off,” said Motlanthe.
Clubs have already resumed training, with the Absa Premiership, Nedbank Cup and GladAfrica Championship set to resume in a BSE in Gauteng, if the PSL do not decide to cancel the campaign once and for all.
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