THE PSL NEC will on Tuesday meet to come up with the new date for the commencement of the 2020-21 season, said the league’s chairman Irvin Khoza.
Khoza and his NEC had initially planned the proposed date of 9 October but it was taken away by Fifa and Caf as both world and continental federations’ calendars were decimated by the deadly outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March.
Both Caf and Fifa, after long deliberation for the new schedule, 8-13 October was confirmed as a new international date for friendly matches on the African continent before the 2021 Afcon qualifiers resume in November.
Bafana will visit Namibia on the 8 October in Windhoek before hosting Zambia six days later at Royal Bafokeng Stadium. “The will be a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issues of the commencement date,” said Khoza on Thursday after announcing DSTV as the new the PSL sponsor on for next season.
“Remember we said we will commence on 9 October, but that became a Fifa week which caught a bit of dislocation on our side. “So we have now decided that we’ll have a meeting on Tuesday to decide the commencement date."
SunSport has been informed that the 2020-21 season, now known as a DSTV Premiership after the MultiChoice Group’s satellite company signed a five-year deal, is set to start on the 17 October with MTN8 quarter-finals.
Due to the novel virus, Mzansi’s 2019-20 season suspended in March, was completed in a biological safety environment (BSE) in Gauteng on 12 September.
In that discussion on Tuesday, the PSL NEC will also reveal the prize money of the DSTV Premiership. Absa, who was the headline sponsor of the PSL for 13 years, the prize money was R15 million and SunSport understands that the new deal is set to usurp that.
“I think the public, South Africa and the continent is waiting to understand the prize money,” revealed Khoza.
"We’ll then set an announcement of the release of the (2020-21) fixtures and, as I said earlier, the commencement of the new date.”
