Task team to determine how PSL can resume

The South African Football Association (Safa) and the Premier Soccer League (PSL) have formed a task team to look into how domestic football can resume in the face of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, though the timeline of this is still dependent on the South African government.

Safa and the PSL met on Tuesday afternoon, and Safa then released a statement saying a team had been set up “comprising of Advocate Tebogo Motlanthe (Safa

Acting CEO); Mato Madlala (PSL Acting CEO); Dr Thulani Ngwenya (Safa Chief Medical Officer); Dr Lervasen Pillay (PSL Head of Medical); Poobalan Govindasamy (SAFA NEC) and Jose Ferreira (PSL Executive Committee Member), to look at the concerns which were raised in the meeting and prepare a submission to the committee. The submissions will later be submitted to the Government for consideration”.

“The Task Team has been given a maximum of 14 days to complete the document and report back to the Joint Liaison Committee.”

Previously, it seemed that Safa and the PSL were some distance apart in terms of when they believe domestic football can resume.

Safa released a statement at the end of April where two medical experts said they believe it will only be safe to resume when the national lockdown reaches Level 1.

With the country still at Level 4, that is not likely to happen any time soon, but the PSL believe football can resume earlier than Level 1 and have compiled an extensive report of their own that was ratified last week and an executive committee meeting.

The PSL have been reticent in making public statements since the middle of March, when chairman Irvin Khoza announced that the league was suspended indefinitely.

The Citizen understands, however, that the league are intent on finishing the season, with teams left with between six and nine games still to play in the 2019/20 campaign, and to avoid a situation where the league is decided on a points-per-game basis, or even declared null-and-void.