By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) Exco is set to announce their decision on whether DStv Premiership fans will return to the stadium this season tomorrow.
The PSL did not exercise the previous 2,000 person limit because clubs complained that a crowd of that size could not be profitable given the costs of hosting spectators, including security staff.
The government last week Tuesday relaxed the restriction on spectators at sports events to allow for a 50% of capacity crowd.
Some clubs are reportedly against a return even at 50% capacity. They have argued that the cost of enforcing provisions that spectators either be vaccinated or have a negative Covid-19 test no older than 72 hours meant it would still be too expensive for clubs that attract few spectators.
The PSL executive committee met today, Monday, March 28, to consider the extent to which the Disaster Management Act and Sports, Arts and Culture regulations impact on the league’s Covid-19 regulations to enable the return of spectators to matches,” the league said in a statement.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE UPDATE:
The PSL EXCO met today, Monday 28 March 2022, to consider the extent to which the Disaster Management Act and Sports, Arts and Culture regulations’ impact on the League’s Covid-19 regulations to enable the return of spectators to matches……
— Official PSL (@OfficialPSL) March 28, 2022
“The meeting was adjourned and will reconvene tomorrow [Tuesday] morning. A press conference will be held after the meeting (at 2pm) to communicate the outcomes.”
Meanwhile a new report has revealed that the DStv Premiership is among the worst leagues in the world when it comes to providing opportunities for young footballers.
This week, the CIES Football Observatory released the latest statistics on U21 footballers around the world in a report that has revealed which leagues afford the most – and the least – opportunities to young players.
The criteria for the report was determined by “ranking 60 leagues worldwide according to the percentage of minutes played by U21 players since the 1st of January 2021.”
Venezuela’s Primera División emerged at the top of the list with an impressive 18.8% of the overall minutes on the pitch being played by U21 footballers, ahead of Denmark’s Superliga, which returned a figure of 16.5%.
South Africa’s DStv Premiership, meanwhile, ranked among the worst leagues for the development of precocious talents, with only five other divisions ranking worse than the league in respect of the game time afforded to U21 players.
Per the report, only 3.2% of the overall game time played this season came in form of age-group level players, which is the sixth-worst overall, and the second-worst on the African continent, behind only the Egyptian Premier League.
The average age of players used frequently in the PSL is 28.3 years old, which is also the joint-10th oldest of the 60 established top-flight competitions that formed part of the study.