It never rains but pours for the troubled South African Football Association (SAFA) after it was forced to stop the proceedings of the ABC Motsepe League National Play-Offs underway in Soshanguve’s Giant Stadium and the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria.
The playoffs, which mark their third day, have been brought to a complete halt due to pending cases from dissatisfied clubs in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, after they had resorted to the court of law for resolutions. Earlier on Thursday, SAFA released a statement about moving the matches from Soshanguve to Atteridgeville.
Water issues
The association had since called off the match involving Bees FC and Zizwe United. The match was set to take place this afternoon at the Giant Stadium in Soshanguve, just outside Pretoria. It was abruptly called off due to “water supply” issues affecting parts of the area.
This comes less than 24 hours after Sasol, the financial sponsors of women’s football that included the women’s league and senior women’s national team, Banyana Banyana. As if that was not enough, the association is being sued by another sponsor, Hollywoodbets.
According to a statement from SAFA, the match, originally slated for 3pm on Thursday (today), was then rescheduled for Friday, June 4, at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville. This is about 60km from Soshanguve. The kick-off was set for 10 AM.
SAFA’s statement elaborated earlier: “The local municipality insisted that the game could not proceed today. It cited that the venue would pose a health hazard due to the water issues affecting the region.”
The competition was initially planned for Tsakane in Ekurhuleni before being relocated to Soshanguve. It follows a group stage format that employs a point-based system to ascertain progression to subsequent phases of the playoffs. Each day features three scheduled fixtures.
SAFA clarified reasons
Furthermore, SAFA has clarified the reasons for the confusion surrounding the competition’s scheduled times on July 1, the inaugural day of the tournament.
“Due to unforeseen delays on the opening day of the playoff games, the matches commenced at 12 midday instead of the designated time of 9am, resulting in only two matches being contested on the opening day instead of the planned three.”
Nevertheless, the competition proceeded on the first day. This saw Kakamas Juventus from the Northern Cape succumbing to a 2-1 defeat against Themes FC from North West. While the Eastern Cape’s Zizwe United and Midland Wanderers of KwaZulu-Natal played to a 1-1 stalemate.
Play-offs completion cancelled
SAFA had envisioned that all group matches would be conducted at the Giant Stadium. With the semi-finals and the final match scheduled to take place at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
The latest development now cancelled all the plans for SAFA’s aims of completing the play-offs on the scheduled day, Sunday, July 6. The two finalists are expected to be promoted to the Motsepe Foundation Championship, the country’s first division league.
