Minister of Sport, Arts and Recreation Nathi Mthethwa has met with Safa president Danny Jordaan and PSL chairman Irvin Khoza to resolve ‘outstanding issues’ following the suspension of football due to the coronavirus pandemic.

South African football was plunged into mass confusion last week when trying to deal with the issues surrounding the outbreak of Covid-19.

It started with Safa announcing that football at all levels needed to be suspended. Mthethwa then recommended that the PSL resumes but with matches to be played behind closed doors, with Khoza still seemingly weighing his options.

Safa president Jordaan. though, was quick to announce that the association was against playing games behind closed doors as it is not effective in stopping the spread of Covid-19.

From the outside it was clear that the two associations, the PSL and Safa, were not on the same page. Jordaan made it clear that no decision taken at Thursday’s (19 March) PSL board of governors meeting would change the fact that no local football would take place until April 2020.

Khoza may have responded by suspending the PSL until further notice.

Jordaan and Khoza then met Mthethwa on Tuesday, 24 March with the aim to resolve the issues between the two.

‘Today I called the meeting between the President of the South African Football Association (Safa) Dr Danny Jordaan and the Chairman of the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) Dr Irvin Khoza to resolve outstanding issues which have been of great importance recently,’ Mthethwa stated on his official Twitter page.

‘I sought a commitment from them to work cohesively in unison and I’m pleased that they have committed to addressing matters together before reaching out to government and other stakeholders. Furthermore, they reiterated their resolve to fight the coronavirus pandemic.’