PSL likely to help the Bafana cause

● League games expected to be postponed ahead of key Libya clash

The Premier Soccer League will soon make a decision on a request from the SA Football Association to postpone games ahead of the vital qualifier against Libya to give Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter more time to prepare.

Safa wrote to the league seeking a postponement of matches on the weekend of March 15-17 so that the national squad could go into camp earlier ahead of their last Group E qualifier where they must avoid defeat.

“The league has received the request and it was discussed at last week’s board of governors’ meeting‚” PSL spokesperson Lux September said.

“The league will make an announcement in the next days, after we have completed talking to all the stakeholders like the clubs‚ sponsors and broadcasters,” he said.

Sources say Baxter is likely to be granted his request with matches involving Bidvest Wits‚ Cape Town City‚ Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United moved to other dates as the fixture list is reshuffled.

But the benefit would seem debatable because Baxter will not be able to get his overseasbased players early, nor those from Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates‚ who are playing their last African Champions League group games on Saturday March 16.

To make matters worse, Sundowns will be in Morocco and Pirates in Guinea and their players who are in the Bafana squad face lengthy travel and will not be able to get back before Monday March 18‚ when the Fifa window for international matches starts.

The Safa request has put the PSL in a tight corner‚ officials said‚ and it will not want to be blamed for not helping the national cause should Bafana lose to Libya and fail to qualify for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.

“It will be a political decision with the league stuck between a rock and a hard place‚” one official said on condition of anonymity. The game against Libya is yet to be fixed but will be on either Friday March 22‚ Saturday Match 23 or Sunday March 24.

The venue will be either Egypt or Tunisia because Libya is banned from hosting internationals due to the country’s tenuous security situation.

Baxter wants more time to work with his players for the high-stakes away game in which a loss will result in SA missing out on qualification for the 2019 finals in Egypt.

Bafana need only draw the game to qualify.

But it promises to be an intimidatory affair against a Libyan side who are mainly home-based and therefore able to hold their own extensive camp before the encounter. –