PSL want season resumption by July 18

Phakaaathi understands that at the moment, the PSL plan to get both the Absa Premiership and the GladAfrica Championship finished, as well as the Nedbank Cup semifinals, which are set to kick off the season restart.

There was, however, a proposal tabled at the PSL Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday for the GladAfrica Championship to be called off, if it means it is more viable for the Nedbank Cup and Absa Premiership to be concluded.

Bidvest Wits will take on Mamelodi Sundowns and Baroka FC will face Bloemfontein Celtic in the last four of the country’s premier domestic cup competition.

The Gauteng province has been chosen as the venue where all remaining games will be played, in a “bubble” created to keep an environment that is as COVID-19 free as possible.

While the quick resumption is not ideal in terms of player fitness, it seems clubs have agreed that they need to do what they can to get the campaign finished, taking into account the economic strain of not playing, and the fact that the PSL have told Fifa they will end by August 31.

Clubs have been excellent in getting their COVID-19 testing done, and the sanitising of their training facilities to the extent that as of Wednesday, Phakaaathi understands, only two of the 32 clubs in the PSL had yet to fully submit the necessary paperwork, as per the regulations implemented by a joint Safa/PSL task force.

It is Safa and government, however, who still represent the major roadblock on the road to the restart, with Safa continuously more cautious than the PSL about when the league could resume. Still, the PSL believe they have done everything they can to ensure the 2019/20 season is concluded safely, and must now wait for official approval.

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