Leopards get boost for PSL
Black Leopards will be able to use their happy hunting ground for PSL matches next season and it’s a venue that opposing teams are sure to hate.
Newly-promoted Black Leopards will be able to use their venue next season with renovations at the Thohoyandou Stadium set to be completed by the start of the new PSL campaign. It is a major boost for the club as they seek to cement their top-flight place and a venue no other Absa Premiership side will relish visiting.
It will be a major consideration for TAB soccer punters when making their picks in the new campaign with the club holding a fantastic record on their own ground.
This past season Leopards‚ who finished second in the NFD‚ won 11 of 17 games at the venue and lost only twice - to runaway NFD champions Highlands Park and a surprise defeat to Cape Town All Stars in mid-January.
After that loss‚ Leopards won nine successive games at the Thohoyandou Stadium including beating Platinum Stars and Jomo Cosmos in the play-offs.
“We will be playing in Thohoyandou, everything is ready,” Leopards owner David Thidiela told
“We get better support in that area than 99 percent of the clubs in this country. We were packing that stadium out every week last season in the second division.
“It is a big advantage for us to play in Thohoyandou and the way the people have supported us there while we were out of the Absa Premiership, it is important that we reward them by bringing PSL football to the area.”
Leopards were forced to play their home games at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane during their previous PSL tenure in 2012-13 as their Thohoyandou venue was deemed not up to standard, which was seen as a contributing factor to them finishing bottom of the league.
Now teams will have to travel an extra two-and-ahalf hours from Polokwane to Thohoyandou, while it is some 430 kilometres by road from OR Tambo International Airport, making this arguably the most challenging away venue in the top-flight next season.
The PSL had earlier said they were keen to have matches played at the venue, but needed to make sure that facilities met their requirements for safety and TV broadcasts.
“The criteria in the top league is more stringent than in the National First Division and we check everything from floodlights to the change rooms‚ showers and mostly importantly the structure of the stadium‚” the league’s chief operations officer Ronnie Schloss said.