Cape Town - The Motsepe Foundation Championship race for automatic promotion to the Premiership will run its course on Sunday when all 16 teams play at the same time.
It promises to be a cracker of a weekend as three teams vie for the honour of winning the division, with any slip-ups potentially ruining those chances. Three point separates first-placed Cape Town Spurs from third-placed Polokwane City, with Mpumalanga-based Casric Stars wedged in-between the two clubs.
Spurs – formerly Ajax Cape Town – lead the NFC standings heading into the final weekend with 56 points, and all they need to do to earn automatic promotion is win their match against ninth-placed University of Pretoria.
Should Shaun Bartlett’s Spurs win on Saturday, they will join fellow Cape-based clubs Cape Town City and Stellenbosch FC in the Premiership as the spiritual successor to an Ajax team relegated at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Casric Stars, meanwhile, play fourth-placed All Stars in what should be a keenly contested clash. For Casric Stars to gain automatic promotion they must beat their hosts at the Tsakane Stadium in Ekurhuleni, and hope that Spurs draw or lose their match.
If they do not win the league, they will play in the PSL promotion-relegation play-offs.
In third place, former top-flight outfit Polokwane City will play mid-table Pretoria Callies. Rise and Shine were promoted to the elite division in 2013, but subsequently dropped back into the first division a season later.
They too are assured of at least playing in the PSL promotion-relegation playoffs, regardless of the outcome of their match on Saturday as they have clear daylight between themselves and fourth-placed All Stars, who have 47 points to Polokwane City’s 54. They too can win the league, but will at least need Spurs and Stars to lose their matches.
The Premiership team that finishes in bottom will automatically drop down to the NFD. Currently, Maritzburg United occupy that position.
Several Premiership clubs, however, are in a battle for survival alongside the Team of Choice, including Chippa United, Marumo Gallants, Richards Bay FC and TS Galaxy. Those clubs are also in contention to compete for 15th spot, which will see them play in the PSL promotion-relegation playoffs.
Their fate will be decided over the next two weekends as the Premiership wraps up.
Elsewhere, the football community in Limpopo suffered a major setback last weekend when two of their clubs – Black Leopards and Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila – were relegated from the NFD into the Safa ABC Motsepe League.
@Herman_Gibbs
IOL Sport