PSL restart feels like the 2010 World Cup all over again

When the chairman of the Premier Soccer League, Irvin Khoza, announced that the Absa Premiership, GladAfrica Championship and Nedbank Cup would all resume on the first weekend of August, with the semifinals of the national Cup kick-off the resumption, it took me back to 2004 in Switzerland, when then-Fifa president Sepp Blatter opened that envelope that bestowed South Africa with the rights to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

That moment was significant for South Africa and as we know, Mzansi remains the only African country to host the premium football tournament. on the planet Khoza, you see, has become really synonymous with calling a press conference, hyping it up in the process only to anticlimax it with an announcement of a sponsorship or a partnership or even something that could’ve been better relayed through a media statement.

But this time around, the “Iron Duke” made ‘the things that made the pots to be done’, if you know what I mean. It is refreshing to know that in about a week’s time one will be sitting in the media booth filing a match report, though it will be quite interesting to see how the PSL will see through the remainder of the season as staging three separate tournaments in one province is unprecedented.

The Biologically Safe Environment (BSE) obviously prevents fans from going to the stadiums as that would pop the bubble. The greater concern, however, is the media, which I am a member of. We are most certainly going to be part of this but we will not be in the bubble, meaning we are going to be going in and out of match venues and sleeping in our homes (or whenever our heads rest), leaving some room for an opportunity to spread if we bring it into the bubble where we will supposedly interact with coaches and players.

This, of course, is speculation of how events would unfold as the PSL, by the time of publishing, has not made any pronouncements about the media. It will be somewhat weird to see a game of Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates prominance being staged in an empty stadium, let alone at the historical Dobsonville Stadium, the home of Swallows FC, which has been adopted by Masandawana for the remainder of the season.

Regardless of how it all pans out, the great thing is that football is back. Let the good times roll.