And here I was thinking what a great job the PSL did by completing the campaign in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
After months of botsing with Safa, peace finally broke out.
They worked together to run the season to conclusion with players, club staff, broadcasters and everyone else being well shielded inside the Gauteng bio-bubble.
But now all the praise seems a little premature and misplaced after the Nedbank Cup debacle, not to mention the ridiculous scenario in the PSL promotion playoffs.
Let’s kick off with the Nedbank Cup sh!tshow where Bloemfontein Celtic are looking to get Saturday night’s 1-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns overturned.
If you don’t know what’s going on there, Downs had suspended fullback Tebogo Langerman on the bench and only when coach Pitso Mosimane wanted to bring him on in the second half did Celtic realise that something wasn’t right.
Thing is, Celtic had seen it too late, as Kabo Yellow went on to complete the “treble” after claiming the league title and the Telkom Knockout.
According to PSL rules, they should lodge their “protest” 30 minutes before the game to have Downs forfeit the match.
Instead, because they only skrikked wakker when coach Pitso had told Langerman to do his warm-ups, that means Phunya Sele Sele’s “protest” has been downgraded to a “complaint”.
While the league puts the onus on clubs’ team managers to keep an eagle eye on opponents’ teamsheets, the league is also the same body who sends out disciplinary updates ahead of every round of fixtures.
So they too know who is allowed to play and who isn’t.
The case now sits in “urgent arbitration”.
But after all of this, don’t expect Downs – owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe – to get anything other than a “monetary” fine or a light tap on the wrist.
See, we’ve been here before with “lucky” Downs. And not so long ago either.
Only last year, the Brazilians faced losing out on the second of their hattrick of league titles.
Once again, they had played a suspended player – then they had defender Wayne Arendse playing in the league against Wits, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Stop me if you think that they should have known better about what happened in the final.
Wag, wag. Let me finish.
Yes, they were uitgevang.
But after the Disciplinary Committee (DC) had let them off with a monetary fine, the PSL themselves appealed the decision with a view to striking off the point.
The case dragged on and on, with the season ending with Downs two points clear of Orlando Pirates.
Having survived any decision until all the matches had been played, the case was dropped and we’ll never know if Downs would have caved in under the pressure of Bucs’ pursuit.
Maybe it’s not Downs who are getting preferential treatment, though.
Maybe it’s just bad and inconsistent decision-making on the part of the PSL and its DC.
Which brings us to “unlucky” Ajax Cape Town.
Apart from being the only club to be relegated for fielding an ineligible player, registered by the league, in the Tendai Ndoro saga, just how dom is the scenario in the playoffs?
Before I get into this, let me just say that the PSL should do away with the current format and just relegate the bottom two clubs from the top flight and promote the top two from the GladAfrica Championship.
Instead we have these stupid playoffs.
And with Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) competing with Black Leopards and Ajax when they have already bought their way into the Premiership is pointless.
Bottom of the mini-league without a single log point, you’ve got to question these guys’ motivation.
Especially after tweeting out their congratulations to Leopards on “almost returning to the PSL” after beating them on Saturday.
Now whether or not TTM would have reportedly scored an extra R10m from African All Stars, who have bought their NFD status, by winning promotion, they are already in the promised land.
They were never playing for the same prize as Leopards and Ajax, so they shouldn’t be in the same competition.
So for the proper intents and purposes, these playoffs should have been a straight shootout between Leopards and Ajax.
What it boils down to is what the PSL want the intentions of their rules and competitions to be.
If fielding an ineligible player is punishable by forfeiture of a match, the letter of the law must be followed and any loophole to escape that penalty must be closed.
And if the prize for the playoff is promotion, then only clubs seeking promotion must be allowed to compete in them.
Otherwise, it’s all a big joke. And nobody is laughing.