PSL no longer set to finish on June 17‚ but now on May 27

The Absa Premiership season will no longer end on June 17‚ as had earlier been scheduled and announced due to outlandish fixtures congestion‚ but now on May 27.

The PSL late on Wednesday sent out a revised fixtures schedule that sees the league end almost a month earlier.

However‚ the league is yet to announce the date of the season-ending Nedbank Cup final.

A statement from the PSL read: “The Premier Soccer League has confirmed fixtures for the remainder of the 2016/17 Absa Premiership and National First Division season including the two block fixtures on the last weekend of May 2017.

“The last day of the 2016/17 Absa Premiership will be on Saturday‚ 27 May 2017 while the NFD will finish a day later.

• Pitso Mosimane wants to bring Lebogang Manyama to Mamelodi SundownsPitso Mosimane would like to sign Lebogang Manyama‚ who he described as a “Sundowns player” in the forward’s style of play‚ but indicated he might not be willing to break the bank for the Cape Town City star. 

“All fixtures on the last day of both the Absa Premiership and NFD will kick-off simultaneously at 15h00. The simultaneous kick-off will also apply on the penultimate fixtures on 17 May 2017.

“The League‚ however‚ has not yet confirmed the date for the 2017 Nedbank Cup final. This will be announced in due course.”

Bafflingly‚ the league had released a revised fixtures list on January 16 indicating that the final round of PSL fixtures would be played on June 17‚ and Nedbank Cup final on June 24 – almost six weeks later than the normal culmination to the season in mid-May.

The late finish (May 27 remains about two weeks later than normal) is due to postponements caused by Mamelodi Sundowns winning the Caf Champions League and their participation in the Fifa Club World Cup.

• 'Sad to see a club with 70 years of history go down because of greed,' says former Swallows official GxowaLong-time Moroka Swallows servant Godfrey Gxowa says a number of the club’s directors are willing to take over the ailing club if it is relegated from the Gauteng ABC Motsepe League to the fourth division. 

Additionally there was also almost a month’s break over the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals held in Gabon in January and early February‚ which followed the normal recess over Christmas and New Year.

Confusingly‚ PSL communications officer Luxolo September on Wednesday evening could not explain how the league had managed to compress the fixtures for a May 27 finish‚ from the earlier June 17.

“I don’t know where that date (June 17) came about‚ because there were a lot of dates being bandied around‚” September said.

“As the league officially we’ve never made a commitment – I know that the chairman and other people asserted that this must be the date – but there was never something on paper that says we will end on the 30th of June‚ or whatever.

“The last statement we sent out was simply saying that we are non-committal beyond the 30th of March.”

• Champions Mamelodi Sundowns on a mission to eliminate Kaizer Chiefs from title race All eyes have been on the national team over the last week but looming on Saturday is arguably the biggest game of the Premier Soccer League season so far. 

The league may still be looking at a date of June 17‚ three weeks after the league’s culmination‚ for the Nedbank final‚ which is traditionally played on the Saturday a week after the end of the Premiership.

This year that Saturday (June 3) is set aside for continental club matches‚ while June 5 to 16 are Fifa international dates.

Or the Nedbank final may have to be played on a Wednesday (May 31) for the first time in the PSL era.

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport