The Premier Soccer League (PSL) may have to consider calling off the 2019-20 season after yet another critical week ended with no clarity on when the league will resume.
Cape Town City boss John Comitis, who is an influential member of the PSL, made this concession on Friday.
Comitis has been one of the most vocal of the 32 PSL club owners on the need to finish the season, which was halted in mid-March due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
A meeting of the PSL board of governors was scheduled for Friday but was postponed to tomorrow because of the death of Matina Khoza, wife of the PSL chair Irvin Khoza.
Comitis told the Sunday Times that time was no longer on the PSL's side for the season to continue.
"Nothing has changed, we're having a meeting [tomorrow] which was postponed due to the bereavement [of Khoza] and we anticipate making a decision that will indicate either we're going to play or we're not," said Comitis.
"At this stage, due to the increase of delays, the pressure is on us to possibly just consider the new season.
"We're sitting in a position where we have to be realistic.
"We at least have to start a new one properly, but we need to see what the [board] will say on Monday."
Pressure on us to possibly consider a new season
— John Comitis
Comitis's latest comments seem to support that of a number of PSL club owners, especially those campaigning in the GladAfrica Championship (First Division), who have said that cancelling the 2019-20 season is the only logical option for the PSL.
Songezo Zibi, head of communications and corporate relations at Absa, said the bank was waiting for the league to tell it of its final call on its last season as headline sponsors of the PSL.
"We've taken note of all the developments in relation to the potential resumption of the Absa Premiership.
"We've been in regular contact with the PSL and are currently awaiting the decision of the PSL's [board] on the way forward. That is what will inform our own position," Zibi said.
The PSL had initially hoped to have all its teams finishing the season in a biologically safe environment set-up in Gauteng, but its constant bickering with the mother body, the SA Football Association (Safa), over a date for resumption delayed all those plans.
The league wanted to resume the season on July 18 but Safa proposed August 1, which was always going to frustrate the PSL because it needed six weeks to finish on August 31 in line with short-term contracts that were signed with players that were out of contract on June 30.
The decision to expunge the season will be a devastating one for Ajax Cape Town, who were seven points clear at the top of the GladAfrica championship, with six games left, when the proceedings were halted.
Equally so, Kaizer Chiefs will look back with sorrow on a season that was stopped when they looked set to end their five-year trophy drought. They were on top of the Premiership with eight games left.
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