A lack of sponsorship and an insufficient number of clubs from coastal areas have set the football National First Division (NFD) about four years back.
Club officials this week reluctantly accepted a proposal by the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to divide it into two different leagues, known as the Coastal and Inland Streams, thereby robbing it of its national identity.
Matters were aggravated by the uncertainty over whether the sponsor of the past three seasons, the Mvelaphanda Group, would continue their financial backing.
As a result, the offer of the PSL to raise the First Division’s grants from R50 000 to R150 000, on condition that they accepted the demise of their national league, proved too hard to contest.
Rendani Mulaudzi, general manager of University of Pretoria FC, told the Mail & Guardian that ”we don’t know if the Mvela League worked or not, because no formal study was done. As teams we relaxed, thinking that there is money in the league. We also didn’t have a vision of where we wanted to see our league in 2010.”
Mulaudzi described the Coastal and Inland Streams as a step backwards. ”We need to strategise so that we do not move backwards and forwards,” he said.
Farouk Kadodia, club chairperson of Maritzburg United FC, agreed with Mulaudzi that it is a huge step backwards. ”Running a team is very difficult if you do not have a sponsor. We have no option but to go the Inland and Coastal route, although we would have loved the league to remain a national league.”
The NFD kick-off, set for August 17, was postponed indefinitely. Several meetings were held with all the league’s club chairpersons to try to resolve the various issues facing the league, but without any success.
This week, a seven-hour-long special general meeting adopted a proposal that will see the Mvela League go from a 16-team National Division to the eight-team Coastal and Inland Streams. Two teams were promoted to the PSL and two teams were relegated from the NFD.
”This is a win-win situation for everybody and the meeting was very fruitful, which we had not expected because of the last meeting,” said Mulaudzi, referring to a meeting held last week where 15 teams from the NFD walked out because of the proposals put forward to them.
The new format will see teams playing each other three times, as opposed to two, in their respective streams. A decision on which team will have the advantage of two home matches will be decided on a draw to be conducted by a computer.
Due to the streams format, the NFD season might end in March 2008. ”We are still trying to find a knockout competition for the teams so that their season ends in May together with that of the PSL,” said PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza.
The winners of the two streams will play each other for automatic promotion to the PSL at the end of the season.
The loser of that match will play the two second-placed teams of the two streams and the team placed 15th in the PSL in a two-leg knockout play-off. The winner will be promoted to the PSL.