Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and his players will converge on 4 January 2024 to prepare for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Broos requested the Bafana stars to have a rest for Christmas before converging but the PSL has declined that request yet again, iDiski Times has been informed.
The former Cameroon coach wanted the DStv Premiership games on 23 and 24 December to go ahead as planned but those between 27 and 31 December to be postponed to give the Bafana internationals some rest before the tournament in Ivory Coast.
However, the PSL leadership has again opted against his request to say no, according to the source.
As a consequence, Broos, who won the tournament with Cameroon in 2017, will have to go ahead with his original plans as it was the case at the beginning of the season.
The scheduling of DStv Premiership games during the festive season has become the latest point of friction between SAFA and the PSL, who have not seen eye to eye at the very top for close to two decades now.
There have already been two disputes between the two footballing bodies in South Africa this season – one because of the African Football League after dates were only revealed in September and not at the beginning of the season.
Another issue was the schedule of the DStv Diski Challenge festival that the PSL set at the same time with Bafana’s World Cup qualifier against Benin at the Moses Mabhida Stadium last Saturday.
This publication understands, SAFA expressed its concern to the league that their spotlight was going to be taken away since the DStv Diski festival was also played in Durban.
Bafana, who are in negotiation to have warm-up matches before the kick-off of AFCON on 13 January 2024, are back in the biennial competition after missing the previous event in Cameroon last year.
This after they reached the AFCON quarter-final in 2019 in Egypt, beating the hosts in the Round of 16 before losing to Nigeria in the last eight.
They won this competition in 1996 on home soul, but lost in the final in Burkina Faso two years later and won the bronze in 2000, the last time they made a telling contribution in this competition.
