Johannesburg-This year will go down in history as the most eventful year after media organization and pay-TV station MultiChoice increased its stronghold of South African professional football by launching the DStv Compact Cup.
MultiChoice took over the financial backing of the PSL’s domestic league from Absa two years ago.
The new competition will see all 16 Premiership teams divided into four groups comprising four teams, each to compete against each in the week-long four-match tournament in the format of two semis, a third-place play-off, and a final match.
PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza broke the news at a press briefing on Monday. The new competition will involve soccer fans, who will decide which players make the cut to play in the four teams.
Khoza described the tournament as “yet another amazing innovation. It will be refreshing that the responsibility of team selection, technical team and name choice will reside with the fans.”
But what the public was expecting during the press briefing was the elephant in the PSL room – how the PSL will come to an outcome of Kaizer Chiefs’ no-show for their two league fixtures after Covid-19 infections hit Naturena two weeks ago.
Khoza said so delicate is the matter that a fifth meeting had to be convened to deal with the issue and there was no clarity on whether they would reach a resolution.
“It requires a lot of attention to detail to make sure that the adjudication on this matter must be seen to be given thorough processing and evaluation,” Khoza said.
While many predicted that the “special announcement” would give final clarity on the Chief’s request to have their fixtures postponed for the month of December, others were of the view that the PSL would suspend its fixtures until early next year. Everyone got it wrong.
The second major incident to dominate South African football was Fifa’s dismissal of Safa’s appeal against the biased officiating during Bafana Bafana’s Qatar 22 World Cup qualifier against Ghana.
Bafana were controversially dumped from the qualifiers after a 1-0 defeat by Black Stars in the last group-stage game. But it was Senegalese referee Maguette N’Diaye’s bias and glaring manipulating the game in favour of Ghanaians that made headlines.
However, Fifa dismissed Safa’s appeal.
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