Wake up PSL, and scrap the play-offs 27 July By Nkareng Matshe Johannesburg – There will have been relief, celebrations too, at the Premier Soccer League’s Parktown headquarters this week after an arbitration ruling dealt a blow to Thanda Royal Zulu’s case against the league. This case had threatened to trigger unprecedented chaos on the PSL programme. Had Thanda won, there’s little doubt the 2013/14 season would not be kicking off as scheduled next week, bringing unimaginable disarray into an already congested fixture list. Just to recap, Thanda finished fourth in the National First Division last season, thereby missing out on a chance to fight for promotion to the Absa Premiership. Naturally distraught at missing out – as any team would be given the chasm that exists between the Premiership and the NFD – the KwaZulu-Natal club searched for loopholes they could use to try and force their way into the promotion play-offs. They launched a protest questioning the fairness of an earlier PSL disciplinary committee decision, which ruled that they could not replay matches forfeited at the beginning of the season as they, like most NFD clubs, staged a boycott. The PSL DC ruled that no team would benefit from those games, creating unevenness in the NFD, after other teams played two or three more games. As it turned out, Polokwane City, the eventual NFD champions, were one of the few to complete a quota of 30 fixtures. Thanda felt this was a bit unfair and argued for the playing fields to be levelled, but it is the timing of their complaint that, as the arbitrators surely would have known, smacked of hypocrisy. No doubt Thanda would never have embarked on a protest had they managed to sneak into the playoffs, in spite of having played fewer games than Polokwane City. While their protest was self-serving, no one should blame them because, frankly, life in the NFD is so disheartening that one cannot point fingers at teams who would do anything to escape it. That division has been without a sponsor for years, is riddled with allegations of corruption and, more damningly, is treated like an unwanted child by the PSL hierarchy. Until the powers that be realise that the gap between the NFD and the Premiership is unsustainable, we are likely to see more of a resort by teams to desperate means in attempts to gain promotion. Instead of strengthening only the Premiership, which enjoys millions of rand in sponsorships, the PSL should be paying adequate attention to the NFD. They could start by abolishing the play-offs and reverting to the old system of promoting two teams and relegating as many. This should dissuade teams who, like Thanda, finished a distant fourth, from seeking back-door entry into the elite division. Doing away with the playoffs would also end the seeming unfairness that currently affects promoted teams. Take Polokwane City and Mpumalanga Black Aces, the two sides elevated from the NFD. They only knew for certain on Wednesday – about 10 days before the season is to start – that their places in the Premiership had been secured. How are they expected to make the grade against teams who started preparing for the new season in May? A glance at recent history shows promoted teams generally struggle to survive a season in the Premiership, and how the PSL has not realised that this is a direct result of the draining playoffs is most baffling. Chippa United, Vasco Da Gama, Jomo Cosmos, Bay United and even Black Aces are some of the teams who’ve barely lasted a season in the elite division, mostly due to the fact that they did not start on an equal footing with their counterparts. The PSL can no longer turn a blind eye to this because, as the Thanda case showed, this could in the long run prove self-defeating. If there were no playoffs, Thanda would not even have sought the intervention of a high court (which, by the way, is in contravention of Fifa statutes) in an attempt to gain promotion via the back door. The PSL probably still greeted this week’s ruling with triumph, patting themselves on the back after the arbitration went against Thanda. In truth though, Polokwane City and Black Aces could be the biggest losers. *Follow Matshe on Twitter @Nkareng
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 13:34:02 +0000
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