First division to be streamlined

The South African first division will undergo a radical overhaul next season when the 16-team inland stream and the 14-team coastal stream are merged into a single 16-team league.

This new-look division — with seven teams each from the inland and coastal stream plus two relegated from the Premier Soccer League (PSL) — is the brainchild of PSL CEO Trevor Phillips. 

He believes the restructuring will allow the first division to be a feeder stream for the PSL. More importantly, as a businessman he believes the South African market can support a maximum of 30 to 32 clubs, and as a soccer-lover he thinks this will raise the standard of football.

It took the ‘British Bulldog” some tough negotiating to get the first division owners and chairmen to agree to a scheme that would effectively put several of them out of business.

Phillips says: ‘The first division clubs have been involved from the start and they agreed that the division needs to be streamlined.” 

What probably swayed them to his plan was the assurance that if they agreed the monthly grant to the teams that remained would increase from the current R14 000 to R270 000, the same as for PSL clubs.

The restructuring of the first division will enable it to have matches broadcast on television and even get a sponsor, says Phillips.

The PSL CEO says that he will look to introduce a cup competition in the first division along the lines of the Coca-Cola Cup.

Nkani Dube, owner of inland stream club Alexandra United is excited about the reshaping of the division: ‘There will be intense competition for the top eight spots in both divisions this season and that will be good for the improvement of  the quality of soccer in the country.”

The restructuring of the division will be a costly exercise for the PSL, says Phillips, but that it is an investment that will be worthwhile for the development of soccer in the future. He would not put a figure to those costs, however.

‘I have been involved in football for 30 years and restructuring the first division has been the toughest project that I have ever tackled,” he says. But he believes the reshuffle is vital to the success of the Castle premiership.

The prospects of an exciting first division this season are great as there is en enormous amount for the current 30 clubs to lose.

Those teams that fail to finish in the top eight of their streams this season will be relegated to the Vodacom League.

When the 2004/2005 first division kicks off there will be a new system of promotion and relegation, which will see only the PSL team at the bottom of the log being relegated while the second-bottom team will be given a lifeline by going into playoffs against the teams that finished second third and fourth in the first division.

The first-division champions will automatically be promoted.

Dube says the league overhaul was long overdue, but he is not happy about how the promotion and relegation of teams will be handled.

‘Two teams must be relegated from the league and two promoted from the first division.”

He does not like the system agreed upon whereby the second- to fourth-position teams in the first division will slug it out in a playoff with the team ending 15th in the PSL.

Phillips, however, is very excited when talking about this part of the plan: ‘It will give us natural television coverage and also keep the momentum of the first division till the last game of the season.”

Park United owner Clive Killian is positive about the changes. He says the reshaping of the division ‘is a good thing as it will automatically lift the standard of football and will see our monthly grants increase”.

He says that from start to finish the inland and coastal stream race will be heated up and the competition will be strenuous and intense.

Maritzburg City owner Bongi Hlophe says: ‘The changes coming into the first division will bring stiff competition among the teams and will attract sponsors. At the same time clubs will have their monthly grants increased.”