Cape Town - The Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza believes that young South African footballers are not putting in enough hours in their development.
Which is why together with MultiChoice, the PSL announced a new knockout competition called the MultiChoice Diski Shield. The new MultiChoice Diski Shield is an expansion of the MultiChoice Diski Challenge (PSL Reserve League).
The competition will kick off on Saturday, April 7 and will run until May 5, 2018 - a total of 24 fixtures.
"With the inception of the MultiChoice Diski Shield, we have identified how many times our youth spend with the soccer ball between their legs as compared to other developed football nations and we realized that we are not putting enough hours," said Khoza.
"With the introduction of this competition, it will ensure consistency and help eliminate lapses and assist us in achieving our goals."
The competition groups the 16 clubs into four regional pools: Central, Coastal West, Coastal East and Northern pool. Each pool consists of four clubs all vying for regional supremacy in a quest dubbed ‘Ubani Ibhoza Ngakini?’ which means ‘Who’s the boss in your hood?’
THE POOLS
Central: Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs, Platinum Stars and Bidvest Wits.
Coastal East: AmaZulu, Golden Arrows, Maritzburg United and Chippa United.
Coastal West: Cape Town City, Ajax Cape Town, Bloemfontein Celtic and Free State Stars
Northern: Mamelodi Sundowns, SuperSport United, Polokwane City and Baroka FC.
HOW IT WILL WORK
In the first round of the tournament, clubs will play each other once and the club with the most points at the end of the pool stages will progress to the semi-finals.
This stage will be known as a ‘Clash of the Cities’ affair.
The winners of the MultiChoice Diski Shield will receive a trophy and R150 000 towards a football development initiative for a local community of their choice.
Fixtures of the first round to be released in due course.