The Premier Soccer League has agreed to continue with the suspension of its programme in both divisions, the elite league and the Glad Africa Championship indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
This follows a marathon Board of Governors (BOG) meeting which took place at the OR Tambo Airport in Kempton Park on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the league had suspended its fixture for midweek and weekend and with the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases increasing to 150, PSL Chairman Dr Irvin Khoza says they will monitor the situation before attempting to resume the league programme.
Earlier on Thursday, the BOG meeting got representations from the Department of Health through Deputy Minister Dr Joe Phaahla and the Ministry of Safety and Security.
SABC Sport understands that the league will be meeting the two departments against next week through a task team which was appointed and will soon report back with some scenarios and possible date when the fixtures will resume according to Khoza.
It’s getting clearer that when the PSL programme resumes, they will take the option of playing behind closed doors and this will be following the permission of Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa.
Khoza says what was critical is to comply with all the directives from the president when he declared this coronavirus outbreak a national disaster on Sunday.
On a day when the English Premier League announced that its programmes will remain suspended until the 30th of next month, Khoza says financially they are affected like all businesses in the country but that’s not their focus now as lives of the people matter and they have to assess the situation.
Khoza says they are targeting to finish their league programme by the 30th of June and that’s when some player’s contract will also be finishing.
When asked about the fourth of next month as SAFA had set, he says there are no guarantees as they want to focus on understanding the regulations, especially around this 100 people limit.
– Reports by Velile Mnyandu
PSL Board of Governors Media Statement: pic.twitter.com/STCdtPUhHe
— Official PSL (@OfficialPSL) March 19, 2020
