Insular PSL awards have to be replaced

The treatment we have meted out to the National First Division (NFD) – from the media to the fans and the Premier Soccer League (PSL) – has been downright disgraceful.

We will all pretend like we care now that the league has reached its business end, with the NFD champions to be crowned after the play-offs, which start on May 17 and end on June 3.

The day the play-offs will start will be the same day when the PSL honours the best performers from the 2014/15 season. Even though there are two more cat- egories added, the NFD continues to be ignored. Only the top goalscorer, likely to be Phumelele “Ace” Bhengu, and the NFD champions, likely to be Golden Arrows, will get to grace the stage at the Sandton Convention Centre on that Sunday from the first division. The rest, they’ll have to be content with receiving applause from their coaches, team-mates and the handful of fans who attend their games.

The PSL awards are flawed, but it’s not their fault. Ignoring the NFD is their fault. The format of the awards need to change, but for that to happen the PSL and Safa would need to come together.

Roger de Sa and Senzo Meyiwa, who played a key role in guiding Orlando Pirates to the 2013 Caf Champions League final and in the process ensured the country gets four slots in continental football, were never honoured by this country.

The problem is that the PSL awards only honour performances from the domestic league, which is fundamentally flawed, but that’s where the organisation’s jurisdiction ends. That means a player can help Bafana Bafana win the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and his club win the Champions League, but if he didn’t do well in the Premiership he won’t be honoured in the country’s premier football awards.

If it weren’t for the SA Sports Awards – Portia Modise, the first African player to score 100 goals for her national team – would never have been honoured, just like the Banyana Banyana squad that defied the odds to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

We need to have South African Football Awards that will look at the performances holistically. But that is unlikely to happen with the PSL running professional football and Safa in charge of national teams and amateur football.

That means there will always be people who won’t be honoured, despite excelling.