15 May 2020 – The South African football fraternity have voted in a Sport24 poll that it would be too dangerous to continue the 2019/20 Absa Premiership season in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.
In a Twitter poll run by Sport24 on Wednesday, with over a thousand votes cast, 51% of followers voted ‘No, too dangerous‘ versus the 35% who clicked on the ‘Yes, let’s play’ option. Around 14% were undecided and opted for the ‘On the fence’ suggestion.
After being suspended indefinitely in March, the South African Football Association (SAFA) and the Premier Soccer League (PSL) have reportedly been at loggerheads on how best to resume the current season.
World governing body FIFA has also given leagues around the world a 31 July deadline by which to conclude, which puts increasing pressure on both SAFA and the PSL to find a solution.
European leagues such as the German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and English Premier League are set to resume from as early as 16 May (in Germany), while the French Ligue 1, Dutch Eredivisie and Belgian leagues have all been cancelled.
in South Africa sporting activity is only gazetted to restart at lockdown Level 1. Mzansi is currently at Level 4, with vague and unconfirmed presidential reports that the country – or parts thereof – may drop to Level 3 from 1 June.
An agreement was reached in a joint SAFA/PSL meeting on 13 May to form a task team who were given a maximum of 14 days to complete a proposal on how the league could be completed.
That document, once agreed upon, will then be submitted to the government by Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, for consideration.
(source: News24)