PSL and Safa form task team to boost bid to restart domestic football

Yet another task team has been set up to look into what it will take for football to resume – chief among them the health and safety concerns.

In March, the PSL’s board of governors established a task team, shortly after fixtures were halted in the wake of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

On Tuesday, Safa and the PSL seemingly put their differences aside when the two bodies met to map the way forward.

The rare gathering at Safa House, which was facilitated by a joint liaison committee, was a significant step in the PSL’s bid to resume its programme on hold since mid-March amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Central to the discussions were measures that could be put in place, while investigating when it’s ideal to resume football.

Read: All eyes on PSL’s bid to restart suspended play

After the deliberations on Tuesday, the liaison committee resolved to form a task team, which has been given 14 days to report back.

The task force is made up of Safa acting chief executive advocate Tebogo Motlanthe, Mato Madlala (PSL acting CEO), Dr Thulani Ngwenya (Safa chief medical officer), Dr Lervasen Pillay (PSL head of medical), Poobalan Govindasamy (Safa executive member) and Jose Ferreira (PSL executive committee member).

Safa said a final document would then be submitted to government for consideration.

Key to the proposals are safety and health measures that should be put in place on match day to convince government to give the green light for games to resume.

The latest development comes at the back of a PSL executive meeting last Thursday where the league deliberated on the feedback of its task team that had drafted a health and safety match day protocol.

Read: PSL mulls over tournament style to resume play

Safa, on the other hand, was hinging its plans on a medical expert’s opinion that football can only return at Level 1 of government’s risk adjusted strategy under the current stringent lockdown regulations.

In the end, the PSL and Safa seem to have heeded the call by Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa, who urged the two football structures

to work together. He added that he needed their “wise counsel as leaders in football”.

“They must counsel me and I emphasised that when I elevate whatever proposals they have to my colleagues in Cabinet‚ I should be going there with one voice,” Mthethwa said.

Get in touch  City Press

+27 11 713 9001 news@citypress.co.za Media Park, 69 Kingsway Road, Auckland Park

Rise above the clutter | Choose your news | City Press in your inbox

City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.