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Pretoria - Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Pitso Mosimane was left saddened after the Premier Soccer League (PSL) failed to postpone their Absa premiership clash against Maritzburg United last week and give them sufficient time to prepare for their CAF Champions League semi-final first-leg encounter against Zesco United in Zambia.
The Brazilians came back suffering a 2-1 defeat to Zesco on Saturday, but with an advantage heading into the second-leg due to an away goal scored by Khama Billiat.
Mosimane cited that the soccer governing body should have considered their hectic schedule in the continental showpiece and the journeys which the Brazilians had to travel to play those games by rescheduling their MTN8 and League fixtures.
The 52-year-old said that Zesco were given adequate time to prepare as six of their domestic games were postponed in Zambia which signals that the Zambian Football Federations is behind their team unlike the PSL and the South African Football Associations (SAFA).
“We are having a hectic schedule recently with the number of games we are playing," said Mosimane.
“But Zesco’s domestic games were postponed so that they could prepare for CAF games, they haven’t played their last six fixtures and it shows that they have support in Zambia.
“I think we don’t have that support from the PSL at home, we travelled so many kilometres to play Chippa in PE, and then travelled back to Pretoria before traveling to Maritzburg again.
“We had to travel back again to Pretoria again and head to Ndola again, you can imagine how tiring it is.
“But at least it’s only two hours to Ndola by flight; imagine if we had to fly to North or West Africa?
“When we ask the PSL to postpone some of our games they don’t, when you ask SAFA not to include our players in the national team friendly games they still call them.
“But it’s fine, we have accepted that but we’ll soldier on as a team.”
