Mamelodi Sundowns and Bidvest Wits will face a heavily congested fixture schedule in the title run-in after Caf announced the rescheduling of the group matches of both the African Champions League and African Confederation Cup.
After the decision was announced on Monday, the Premier Soccer League will be in a scramble to rearrange a host of fixtures after the group stages of both continental competitions was extended to a two-month event.
The fixture changes will likely see both title hopefuls fall behind current league leaders Kaizer Chiefs in the amount of games played due to their commitments in the Caf competitions.
Sundowns currently have only the one game in hand, although that will increase over the next few months, while the Clever Boys currently have four games in hand on the league leaders and will still face further adjustments as well.
The Brazilians have been drawn in Group C of the Champions League against Algeria’s USM Algeria‚ Angola’s Petro Atletico and perennial rivals Wydad Casablanca of Morocco.
Schedule Changes pic.twitter.com/7mytnXtZw5
— CAF (@CAF_Online) November 24, 2019
Gavin Hunt’s men though are in the Confed Cup group stages for the first time and face Al Nasr (Libya)‚ Djoliba of Mali and Guinea’s Horoya.
The group stages are set to kick off this coming weekend, with the fixture change only affecting the later rounds in December and the start of the new year with the final three match days‚ set for February and March‚ now scheduled for January and the first two days of February.
The quarter-final draw is also being brought forward a full month to 9 February and the knockout phase now commences at the end of February rather than in April as previously scheduled.
The two legs of the semi-finals have also been moved and will now take place over the first two weekends of May, with the finals at the end of the month and then the Confederation Cup final on 24 May and the Champions League final on 29 May 29. The venues are yet to be determined.
