Make a date
The PSL has toyed with the idea of reverting back to a calendar-year football season. Is it time for South African football to get in step with the rest of the continent again? By Nick Said.
Is it time to revert to a February-November calendar?
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is based in a country at the very bottom of Africa whose clubs and national team compete in tournaments under the auspices of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). So why do we have a football season that is instead aligned to Europe’s calendar? Prior to the formation of the PSL in 1996, the South African domestic season ran from February to November, but with a new dawn came a change in thinking to align our calendar with the major leagues in the world. One of the main drivers in this was to try and entice top clubs from around the world to come to South Africa in their off-season, adding some glitz and glamour to the local game. That has largely failed, bar for a few years when the Vodacom Challenge was played and Manchester United and Manchester City were visitors. In terms of the football watched from the stands, it has brought few benefits and one negative. Kick-offs are later on hot summer days. But where it has impacted is off the pitch and on the national teams. By not aligning with the CAF calendar, the South African league and Bafana Bafana are never quite in sync. While the PSL has been more accommodating in recent years by opening up blocks of weekends to help the national cause – as they did for the Africa Under-23 Cup of Nations – they battle with an already packed programme and there is only so much accommodating they can do. With a domestic season that has, some would argue, one knockout competition too many and needs to shed two teams from its top-flight, there is little room to manoeuvre. Is it coincidence that the only time Bafana claimed the Africa Cup of Nations title in 1996 was in the year in
which the season changed to August-May? Or that the only time a South African side has won the African Champions Cup was in 1995 when the domestic season gave Orlando Pirates the ‘space’ to go all the way? Pirates’ domestic form has suffered this season not just because they played extra matches in reaching the Final of the Caf Confederation Cup, but because the players have had no break in 18 months. With the CAF competitions being played through the South African pre-season, there was no time off for players. And they are paying for it now, and will do so well into 2016. Stan Matthews, then CEO of the PSL and now back as boss of SuperSport United, said three years ago that the League was keen to return to the February-November calendar and that the aim was to make the change in 2014. “In principle the executive have agreed to switching the season to a calendar year to be in line with the rest of Africa,” Matthews said in April 2012. “The League wants to see its clubs do well in Africa and this is a step in that direction.” A year earlier Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza (above), who is also chairman of the PSL, seemed keen to push the idea through. “We are seriously looking at changing the season,” Khoza said. “We are hoping the Board of Governors will make that decision ... though I am now speaking as the chairman of Orlando Pirates, not the PSL. “If that happens it will increase the chances of teams in South Africa to compete with the rest of Africa. It otherwise
“For now, our position remains the same – we are maintaining the status quo.”
puts teams under pressure; in the middle of their pre-season they must go and play away … they come back tired.” In fact, everybody – club coaches and national team bosses alike – seemed to think it was a good idea ... but it never happened. Why? The PSL did at the time look extensively at the idea of moving the season back to a calendar year, but in the end decided that the pros of keeping the season as it is outweighed the cons. “It must be noted that this was discussed a while ago – in the last two to three years – and we solicited different views on the matter,” PSL General Manager Derek Blanckensee tells KICK OFF. “It has not been tabled at the Board of Governors. For now, our position remains the same – we are still going ahead maintaining the status quo.” It is worth noting that the north African leagues of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, which have had so much continental success for their clubs in the last decade, all run, like the PSL, from August-May. KICK OFF has obtained the PSL’s positioning document that lists the positive and negatives of moving to a single calendar year. They are listed as follows:
The pros …
• Registrations for CAF interclub competitions will be in line with registrations for our domestic season. We currently have a situation where clubs qualifying for CAF may sell a number of their players in our local off-season, players who were registered for and played in the early rounds of the CAF competition. Because of the limit on registrations for CAF, clubs are then not able to register as many of their new acquisitions as they would like and therefore find themselves with weakened CAF squads. • There will be no clash with the Africa Cup of Nations, which currently brings about a long break in our fixtures every two years. • Our off-season will be in December and January, which suits traditional family holidays in South Africa, with that period being the hottest part of the year, a time when conditions for
players are arduous. • It is dry in the interior of the country so matches are generally not disrupted by storms. • Players will get used to playing in cold conditions which will prepare them for playing overseas and therefore make them more marketable.
… and the cons
• In mid-winter our pitches are generally in a poor state, with Kikuyu grass being dormant and almost white in colour and very weak, resulting in bare patches and affecting both the quality of the football and the television product. • The conditions for spectators are very cold, particularly at night. With high quality TV coverage this will result in dropping spectator numbers as fans will choose to stay at home. The broadcaster’s requirements are increasing, resulting in us playing night matches which
exacerbates the problem of the cold weather. • The season will clash with the World Cup every four years. There is also a potential clash with the Confederations Cup if the country winning the African Cup of Nations has PSL players. Fifa also typically schedules a number of qualifiers or other Fifa dates during that time. • If South Africa qualifies for the African Cup of Nations, the tournament would come approximately a month after the end of our season, which is not ideal due to injuries, tiredness etc. • Our transfer windows would not be completely aligned with the windows used by countries outside of Africa. This can have a negative effect in terms of concluding international transfer deals. • The weather is very windy and wet in Cape Town during the winter months. • Contractual obligations with sponsors will make the transition from one season to the other difficult. Arguments can be made on both sides, but perhaps the most important point is that there are no plans to change the season in the foreseeable future. What we see now is what we will get in the next few years at least.