The main goal is to finish the season
After a 21-week break, following the national state of disaster and the resulting lockdown levels, professional soccer will resume in South Africa this weekend.
At 14:00 on Saturday, Bloemfontein Celtic will face Baroka FC in a Nedbank
Cup semi-final at Orlando Stadium.
The other semi-final, between Mamelodi Sundowns and Bidvest Wits, will take place at the same venue at 19:15 on Saturday.
League action will start with GladAfrica Championship matches scheduled from Sunday and Absa Premiership games taking place from Tuesday.
All remaining matches will be played in the Gauteng biobubble during a four-week period.
Lowveld-based soccer teams, Mbombela United and TS Sporting, both face a tough four weeks in the GladAfrica Championship. Both are in the bottom half of the log table.
Sporting will face
Richards Bay at Tuks Stadium on Sunday, while United’s return fixture will be versus Cape Umoya United at UJ Soweto Campus on Wednesday.
No fans will be allowed at PSL or GladAfrica games. Team officials, match officials, medical personal and broadcast and printed media will be allowed.
Mbombela United will utilise UJ Soweto Campus as their temporary home ground.
TS Sporting will use Tsakane Stadium in Brakpan for their “home” games.
It is not yet clear if relegation will be relevant to the bottom three GladAfrica teams once all fixtures are complete.
South African Football
Association CEO, Tebogo Motlanthe said amateur football will not resume until level 1 lockdown is achieved.
Therefore the ABC Motsepe leagues might only resume late in the year, if at all.
With the Premiership and National First Division already set to commence the 2020/21 season late the ABC Motsepe leagues might be declared null and void. If this occurs there will be no playoffs for places in the First Division.
In the Mpumalanga stream of the ABC Motsepe League, FC Mpumalanga United are top of the log with 45 points after 22 of matches.
Barberton City Start are second, on 42 points after 22 matches. Both teams have six matches remaining and are strong contenders for automatic promotion or a play-off place. The cancellation of the league could well rob them of this hard-fought and prestigious achievement.
TS Sporting are 13th on the GladAfrica log table.
With only five wins from 23 matches it has been a disappointing season for Abantu Bemthetho.
“We are looking to finish eighth to 10th as we were well before lockdown level 5 in March. The team were able to qualify for the last eight of the Nedbank Cup and we are confident we will do better in the last seven games,” said Vusi Ntimane of TS Sporting.
Despite the inactivity due to lockdown and only returning to the practice field a little more than a month ago, TS Sporting are confident about the fixture-congested four weeks that lie ahead
“No have no injuries and we have had enough time to train. We have enough players to finish this last seven games. We had five weeks of training that is enough. We have a highly qualified physio who will make sure players are managed well during the camp,” said Ntimane.
Mbombela United are 14th, or third last, on the log table.
Tingwenyama have lost 12 of their 24 matches thus far. Only bottom-of-the-table Royal Eagles have lost more games.
The KaNyamazane lads will have their backs against the wall and will have to to improve drastically on their pre-Covid-19 performances.