It’s now all in Safa’s hands, says Khoza

The PSL has a restart plan, but still needs approval

THE Premier Soccer League believes that the immediate resumption of football will ease the financial pressure that has hit clubs and stakeholders due to Covid-19.

It’s been four months since the domestic season came to an abrupt halt. But in the last few weeks, the Joint Liaison Committee (JLC), which consists of the South African Football Association together with its special member the PSL, made a successful bid to the government for football to resume in a biologically safe environment.

Given that there were a number of protocols to follow in ensuring that the safety and health of everyone that enters the “biobubble” is not compromised, Safa suggested that football can resume under level 1 regulations.

But the PSL believes that the sooner the season is concluded, the better it will be for everyone involved.

On Friday, acting PSL chief executive Mato Madlala sent a detailed letter to Safa’s acting chief executive Tebogo Motlanthe, informing him of the league’s Board of Governors (BoG) proposal to declare Gauteng as the base of the bio-bubble and restart football on July 18.

In the letter, Madlala went on to detail a list of stadiums and training venues that will be used during the restart of the season. Motlanthe, however, dismissed the PSL suggestions, saying it will only be practical to start the season after August 1.

Yesterday, the JLC met to illustrate the way forward through a compliance officers meeting, but PSL chairman Irvin Khoza, during his own press conference, said they already have an immediate plan for the resumption of football and now everything is in the mother body’s hands.

“When we prepare the fixtures, we send them to Safa and they come to us with the response. We’ve set a date (for the resumption of football) and they’ll be the one that will come back to us to indicate (the way forward),” Khoza said.

Among the issues that were set to be discussed by the JLC was the preparation and readiness of officials for the return for football.

In the last few weeks, most of the 32 PSL clubs (Premiership and Championship) returned to training after adhering to health and safety protocols after approval by the PSL’s compliance officer Michael Murphy.

The testing procedures may be deemed costly but all 32 clubs will also be expected to undergo the last testing routine 48 hours before assembling in the bio-bubble, while an account for those testing positive for Covid-19 has been opened.

“There’s two testings that are compulsory – the first test and 48 hours before going into the bubble. As I speak now, the PSL has opened up an account to one of the national footprints (testing laboratories) to make it easy for the clubs,” Khoza explained.

“For clubs that do not have funds, the league has opened an account where the money they’’ll use will be deducted later on from the monies that were supposed to be paid to them.”

Therein lies the PSL’s urge to restart the season as soon as possible. As the season was scheduled to have come to an end on June 30, that meant that monthly grants were not paid to the clubs beyond that.

“I must indicate that from June 30, that was the last time the PSL got the grants. Nothing happens beyond that because we fund the new season going forward,” Khoza explained.

“But the sponsors have been gentle in the last four months, especially the broadcaster (MultiChoice), because they’ve paid us and we’ve been paying (monthly grants) without them asking questions in terms of what they get in return.”

He continued: “And that is why it is important to restart because beyond June 30 we were not going to be able to pay the clubs grants.

“And if that continues (for an extended period), that means we are supposed to revert to retrenchments.”

Attempts to get comment after the JLC meeting with the department of referees proved to be futile yesterday, while the BoG is set to meet today to map the way forward.

STUART HESS