The South African government has finally approved the resumption of the Premier Soccer League under lockdown level 03 regulations.
After lengthy meetings and discussions, the league has finally made progress in its plans to complete the 2019/20 season after three months of no football due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The South African Football Association has since explained in depth the next steps in the process, which sees teams return to club training and ultimately, return to action.
"The South African Football Association (SAFA) welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Sport endorsing the SAFA Joint Liaison Committee (JLC)'s return to training and return to play protocol," SAFA said on their official website.
"The green light from the Minister means the work on the implementation of the document can start. SAFA has appointed Chief Medical Officer, Dr Thulani Ngwenya as the Compliance Officer to oversee the appropriate implementation of the whole process and that everything on the protocol document is adhered to.
"The initial part of the protocol entails adequate compliance with the return to training part. Once the clubs have fulfilled all the requirements, such as testing of players, support and technical staff, then focus on return to play kicks in.
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"The return to training also requires sanitising of the training venues, appointment of club compliance officers who will work with Dr Ngwenya and the appointment of a consulting doctor for each club, among other things.
"Once the return to training meets all the requirements and the biological safe environment has been identified as stipulated in the protocol, the second part of the return to play kicks in.
"The second part of the protocol document, which is the return to play, talks of the biological safe environment, a place that is not a hotspot, has capacity for accommodation for all teams, training and playing venues among other things, to be identified," the association concluded.
