Gavin, Benni lock horns
NEW FIXTURES: WITS TAKE ON CAPE TOWN CITY, THEN IT’S UNITED, DOWNS
McCarthy given his chance by Hunt many years ago.
Reigning champions Bidvest Wits and last season’s surprise package Cape Town City will kick off the new Absa Premiership campaign on Friday August 18 in a potentially sizzling opening encounter at the Bidvest Stadium.
The Premier Soccer League finally released its official 2017/18 fixture list yesterday, with a Tshwane derby between SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns the standout encounter on Saturday August 19.
Kaizer Chiefs will start their season with a trip to Bloemfontein Celtic, while Milutin Sredojevic’s first match in his second spell as coach of Orlando Pirates will be at home to Dan Malesela’s Chippa United.
The first Premiership Soweto derby of the season has been set for October 28, when Chiefs will be the home side at FNB Stadium. The second-round match will be played on March 3.
The Wits-City match will see Clever Boys coach Gavin Hunt go up against Benni McCarthy, who took up his first head coach position at City ahead of the new season. This is a friendship that goes back decades, as it was Hunt who gave McCarthy his chance as a 17-year-old striker at Seven Stars in Cape Town.
There was a delay in the PSL releasing the fixtures, partly caused by the decision by the Confederation of African Football to change the dates of the 2017 Caf Champions League and Caf Confederation Cup quarterfinals, which will feature Sundowns and SuperSport respectively.
The PSL were then waiting for broadcast rights holders SuperSport to ratify the fixture list, and the league finally released them yesterday, to go with the launch of their new website.
Clubs should not have been too badly affected by the delay, however, as they were sent a provisional fixture list some time ago.
Other key days include the MTN8 final (September 23), the Telkom Knockout final (December 2) and the Nedbank Cup final (May 19).