Return to training may have been premature

The Absa premiership and GladAfrica Championship clubs may have returned to training prematurely after it emerged yesterday that the health and safety compliance protocols were not approved by the South African Football Association (Safa).

After sports minister Nathi Mthethwa granted permission for non-contact and contact sport training to resume last month, most of the clubs conducted their first round of Covid-19 testing.

This was followed by a return to training but it has emerged that this was done without the knowledge of the sport’s mother body Safa.

The situation has led to confusion as according to a letter written by Mthethwa to Safa president Danny Jordaan on Sunday, the mother body is expected to play a key role in ensuring compliance by the clubs.

“In line with the approach you followed through the Joint Liaison Committee established, it will be expected that Safa plays the overarching role in ensuring compliance with the directions through their appointed compliance officers,” Mthethwa said in his letter to Jordaan.

Mthethwa’s letter further said: “The PSL has been advised to submit its plans to Safa. On receipt of such plans, we will appreciate it if those plans are quality assured and submitted to the department to prepare its monitoring plan.

“Safa is further requested to provide the department with its detailed compliance monitoring plan of how its compliance team will monitor the PSL activities as well as any other football activities that will resume under the lockdown.

“The details should include names of compliance monitoring teams, dates, venues, times and clubs to be visited,” the letter from Mthethwa said.

TimesLIVE contacted Safa chief medical officer Dr Thulani Ngwenya yesterday to provide further clarity on the matter and he said they were meeting with the PSL this week to map out a way forward.

“On Wednesday [tomorrow] there is a meeting between the PSL compliance officer, the chief executive and the Safa compliance officers and its chief executive.

“From that meeting, we will map out the way forward,” Ngwenya, who was supposed to have monitored and given approval on whether the PSL and the National First Division clubs have complied with the health and safety regulations to resume training or not, said.

Contacted yesterday to comment on the contents of Mthethwa’s letter, PSL acting CEO Mato Madlala said she had not seen the correspondence between Jordaan and the minister.

“I haven’t seen the letter and I can’t comment on something that I have not seen,” she said.

Madlala said the teams that had resumed training met the health and safety regulations that were set out by government.

“The ones that have gone back to training, they have followed the protocols of government,” Madlala said.