Irvin Khoza (right) promised the release of the Betway Premiership fixtures last month, but the schedule still remains outstanding. | BackpagePix
HERMAN GIBBS
Comment
So much for the PSL being one of the best leagues in the world.
The latest league rankings, as decided by the two authoritative independent organisations – the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) and Opta’s Power Rankings – show the South African league is not even in the world’s top 50.
Two years ago there was a huge outcry in football circles when it became known that the PSL dropped a whopping 21 places, from 31st to 52nd, in the IFFHS rankings. This year, the PSL has dropped even further, to 62nd.
https://iffhs.com/posts/3336At the recent announcement of the Betway Premiership sponsorship, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza said: “Our partnership with Betway confirms our league’s standing as one of the best in the world."”
Well, this league, supposedly “one of the best in the world”, is presently sitting without an official Premiership fixture list. The notice on the PSL Premiership’s website reads: “No fixtures currently available for this tournament.”
It is a similar case when searching for the Premiership TV schedule on SuperSport.
The league is not even rated in the top five in Africa – that honour falls to the Egyptian Premier League, followed by Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Tanzania. It’s a sad state of affairs for a league that offers great prize money, showing a lack of foresight and planning.
The season started two weeks ago when the two MTN8 quarter-finals were played. The remaining quarter-finals were played at the weekend and now the PSL has come to a grinding halt. Some clubs are talking about another pre-season programme.
The four clubs that lost in the MTN8 quarter-final round – Polokwane City, Sekhukhune United, TS Galaxy and SuperSport United – will only return to action when the Premiership finally kicks off, and that date has been pencilled in for September 14. It must be a nightmare for those clubs, given the long break after losing their MTN8 matches.
https://x.com/OfficialPSL/status/1822662629900304809Recently, Khoza spoke about the difficulties the PSL had experienced with the drafting of fixtures. These problems are nothing new and for years the domestic game has been disrupted by CAF matches.
The PSL should, by this time, have the know-how to deal with these unforeseen problems and should also accommodate Bafana Bafana when there is a need to halt fixtures out of consideration for the national team.
Part of the problem is, despite all the experience of running a pro league, the PSL has been running without a chief executive officer for years. The last CEO was Brand de Villers, who held the post from 2013 until 2015.
Since he resigned, one of the club owners, Mato Madlala of Golden Arrows, has been the league’s acting CEO. Madlala has been a nightmare for the media because she does not communicate ... at all.
The fixture mess is not the only disconcerting feature of the Premiership. There is also the lack of VAR, which means that questionable decisions cannot be tested timeously.
The first match of the season saw Orlando Pirates host SuperSport United in an MTN8 quarter-final clash. When the refereeing decisions were reviewed on a TV show, former PSL referee Victor Hlungwani suggested that referee Abongile Tom got three crucial decisions wrong.
He felt the decisions should have gone SuperSport United’s way.
Safa are responsible for supplying match officials and they should also be providing the VAR facility. They cannot do it on their own because the matches are convened by the PSL, who are the guardians of the professional game in the country.
Sadly, there is no hope of these matters receiving the desired attention by the country’s football-controlling bodies.
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