Mbabane: It has been reported by Kickoff that Bio-Bubble will cost teams E3-million in 6 weeks to complete the season.
This publication reported that Eswatini has a plan to complete the current season between 14 to 16 weeks from the yet to be announced restart date. Remaining competitions under the Premier League of Eswatini are the MTN Premier League and EswatiniBank Cup which carries tickets to the Total CAF Champions League and Total CAF Confederation Cup continental tournaments respectively. According to EFA projections, the season should be wrapped up in mid-October, if the 16-week plan succeeds.
The neighboring South African PSL has selected Gauteng to host the 32 Absa Premiership and GladAfrica Championship teams to conclude their league seasons, as well as the Nedbank Cup semi-finals.
But completing the remaining games will be tougher than most people think as only a few clubs can afford the cost of competing in the proposed bio-bubble, according to the experienced football administrator. “This thing is costing like around R1 375 a day for each person there,” a prominent PSL club official who prefers to remain anonymous reveals to KickOff.com.
“Now if you go and calculate the six weeks, if it goes to 45 days that’s like R3-million just for accommodation and food, per club. Now let’s say you are a GladAfrica team, your grant was even… R3-million is like grant for six months, and there you are going to spend it just for six matches. It’s going to be very costly for clubs.
“What is the benefit? Because now it’s even August already [when football will resume]. You’d rather skip August and prepare rather for the new season and start afresh in September. “Obviously me now I’m pushing it because I’m affected, besides the cost. It should be obviously null and void. It’s 80 percent there I think because the last meeting, that’s what we were talking. “But other people [clubs] don’t agree because they thought the League is going to pay. And everyone is expected to pop out from their pockets. Even premier division teams, I don’t think they can afford this money.
It remains to be seen if the local league will be completed or will be cancelled like Lesotho and Botswana who both closed their leagues respectively. In Lesotho the Federation has presented named Bantu FC as season’s Premier League champions and will take part in next season’s CAF Champions League. Meanwhile, there will be no relegation from the top division, but Manonyane FC and CCX FC will be promoted.
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