Matshelane Mambolo laments the need for promotion/relegation play-offs, after an already drawn out season.
|||I am tired. And I should be looking forward to a deserved rest. But that cannot be, for two weeks of unnecessary slog await the football slave that is me.
The Nedbank Cup final match between Ajax Cape Town and Mamelodi Sundowns should be the last official clash of the season. And the following night we all assemble at the Sandton Convention Centre to celebrate the stars who entertained us since August.
But no, that is not how it is going to be – thanks to the bloody play-offs! Why do we have them, really? So that some good-for-nothing Premiership team that had a forgetful season can be given the chance of staying up at the expense of a National First Division (NFD) side that worked their socks off all season to finish second?
Surely that is not right? Surely a team that finishes second from bottom in the elite league should be automatically relegated and the one that finishes runners-up in the tier two division be promoted?
The play-offs are very unfair to the lower division side and need to be done away with completely. When a team has worked as hard as Jomo Cosmos did to finish second behind Golden Arrows, surely they shouldn’t be made to then work extra hard to earn their promotion?
What makes it all the more wrong is the fact that the team finishing third in the NFD, in this case Black Leopards, are also competing in the play-offs. Imagine Leopards winning the play-offs, surely it just is not fair for Cosmos who beat them in the league throughout a season where they played against everybody twice.
I know they are a sensible lot, the men and women who make up the PSL Board of Governors, and at their next seating will look into this system and change it.
Those with clubs in the NFD, in particular, should be vocal on this issue if they know what’s good for them, for in their current format the play-offs are pro the Premiership sides.
It wasn’t surprising that Moroka Swallows and all their fans celebrated like they’d won the championship on Saturday when they beat Bloemfontein Celtic to finish in the 15th spot, offering them a second chance at staying up in the lucrative elite league.
This is not how it should be. The league must revert to the two-up, two-down policy of the past. If they must have the play-offs, then have the team finishing third in the NFD take on the one finishing 14th in the Premiership battle it out.
That should make the competition much more interesting than it currently is where teams can have as wretched a season as Swallows did and still have hope of staying in the top echelon . Oh, and by so doing extend our season unnecessarily thus denying us of a deserved rest. It’s not right. - The Star
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