OPINION: This PSL start is as slow as molasses

The Premier Soccer League season is underway, but it has started at the kind of pace that makes a snail look like Akani Simbine.

The MTN8 quarterfinals kicked the campaign off, with four games spread over two weekends from August 3 to August 11.

And the drip-feeding will continue next week, with the MTN8 semifinals.

The delay to the start of the Premiership season has been caused by a change of sponsor, DSTV’s last minute withdrawal seeing Betway step in with an eye-watering deal worth R900 million over three years.

At a press conference on July 24 to announce the Betway Premiership, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza did his best to make the league look like a well-oiled machine that always gets things going on time.

In truth, however, the PSL were clearly still patching together a viable fixture list. Despite Khoza’s comment that the fixtures could well be out later that afternoon, the PSL only released the official fixtures three weeks later, on August 15.

The Betway Premiership will now get underway on September 14, with a reduced fixture list over that weekend as it coincides with the Confederation of African Football club competitions.

One could argue that Betway’s lucrative new sponsorship, however ethically problematic, will make it worth the wait. But with fans used to all the action kicking off at full tilt in August, they are entitled to be frustrated.

No action

Last weekend, there was not a single PSL fixture, and the two Caf games that took place, featuring Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch, were not even televised. This weekend, similarly, there is no PSL action, with just Pirates and Stellies involved in their Caf competition second legs.

It is hard to know whether all this will be of help or hindrance to Bafana head coach Hugo Broos, when his team kick off their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign against Uganda and South Sudan at the start of September. 

Maybe Broos will benefit from having a fresher squad than might be expected if the Premiership was already in full flow. But my word it has made the start of the season as dull as dishwater.