The sports must choose: the game, or life?

Sports minister Nathi Mthethwa says professional teams can begin training, but contact sport matches are not allowed. In a nation as sport crazy as ours, the prospects of the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the National First Division, Currie Cup rugby, Super Rugby, the Rugby Championship or first-class and limited-overs cricket at top levels returning are exciting. Professional sport around the world ground to a halt in March and April as countries scrambled to contain the threat posed by the coronavirus. In football, only five leagues — Belarus, Taiwan, Nicaragua, Tajikistan and Burundi — remained active in that time. Rugby leagues and professional cricket have stalled.

Tennis suspended ATP and WTP tours and cancelled the All England Championships at Wimbledon. The National Basketball Association in the US also shut down its season.

In SA, professional sports teams and administrators who want to resume training and play matches were given 14 days — from Monday June 1 — to submit their proposals to the government.

The proposals require them to map out how they will ensure the safety of the players and the officials involved in the matches.

This newspaper reported last month that the PSL was proposing a massive single camp for all soccer clubs in a bid to complete the 2019/2020 season.

In terms of the plan, clubs will assemble and be accommodated in a camp and will stay together at a venue that will be biologically safe and where strict health arrangements can be made.

That may be an option for the PSL, but what about the National First Division and amateur leagues, which have fewer resources? Can they afford to isolate players at hotels for eight weeks? Also, do all the teams have the required full-time medical specialists to help enforce health protocols?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then those sports and leagues that cannot guarantee player safety should not be allowed to resume matches.

No game is more important than the lives of players.