No clear timeline for resumption of football – Mthethwa

The Absa Premiership was suspended in March in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic which has devasted the international sporting calendar.

The Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthetwa says talks on the resumption of sport is ongoing between his department and the South African Football Association (SAFA) and the Premier Soccer League (PSL).

Mthethwa gave an update on his department’s relief fund on Monday.

The minister met with SAFA president Danny Jordaan and PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza recently to seek guidance from both institutions on the way forward.

“My final message to both of them is that they are occupying a very important space in society, as regards to football… I have been in contact with both of them and said to them our country has moved to level four, so I need their wise council as leaders in football,” said Mthethwa.

“Their wise council on their thoughts regarding the reopening or softening of the lockdown with our own risk-adjusted strategy as government.

“So they must council me both of them, so I emphasised that it should be advisable that as government we should get one voice from both of them.”

The minister, both parties, have a board of governors meeting on Thursday and will after that present his department with their decision.

The minister says other sporting bodies have made proposals to reopen their activities, and this includes golf which is a none body contact sport.

“They motivated strongly that the nature of the sport itself is not contact sport and it is safety in terms of the regulation of the one metre, they fit into that. And other sporting codes are making their recommendations, and we will look into that,” he says.