The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

leagues and cups in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is based in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

and the remnants of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). Affiliated to the South African Football Association (SAFA), the PSL organizes the country's top two professional divisions in the South African Premiership and the National First Division, and knockout cup competitions in the

Nedbank Cup The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's Premier Soccer League, premier club association football, soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of gi ...

and the

MTN 8 The MTN 8 is a South African soccer single-elimination tournament, cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding season of the top-flight league (currently the Sout ...

. Teams that are relegated from the National First Division compete in the SAFA Second Division. They also organize a Youth League or PSL Reserve League DStv Diski Challenge.

Organisation

The Premier Soccer League sell the naming rights of their competitions to a title sponsor. They had previously organized the

Charity Cup The Charity Cup, also referred to as the NZF Charity Cup (previously known as the ASB Charity Cup for sponsorship reasons), is New Zealand's association football super cup, which takes place on annual basis. The competition was founded in 19 ...

, a one-day, four team, season-opening cup competition, which ran from 1986 to

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. The Baymed Cup was open to First Division sides, but the competition was terminated after a single edition in 2006.

League licenses

Licenses to participate in the Premier Soccer League can be bought and sold on the

free market In economics, a free market is an economic market (economics), system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of ...

. In August 2002, the PSL bought two Premiership licences from the owners of Ria Stars F.C. and Free State Stars F.C., the PSL dissolved the license to ease fixture congestion and reduce their own costs by R 400, 000 per month as each top-tier club received R 200, 000 on a monthly basis from the PSL. The two clubs were purchased for R 8 million. The two clubs had differing fates, Ria Stars never appeared again whilst Free State Stars bought the league license from Maholosiane F.C., a team participating in the National First Division in the 2002–03 season and earned promotion to the top tier in the 2003–04 season.

Structure

The PSL is the only special member of the South African Football Association. The NSL has 32 members; the 16 clubs from the Premiership and 16 clubs from the First division who together form the Board of governors. The Board of governors is the supreme body and its functions are stated in Article 13 of the PSL constitution. The Board of governors elects the chairman and the executive committee, it is empowered to delegate management and operational functions to the executive committee. The executive committee consists of 8 elected members and the chief executive officer. The Executive is appointed for a period of four years at the quadrennial general meeting. The Executive delegates some of its operational functions to the CEO.

References

External links

* {{South African soccer seasons Sports leagues established in 1996 1996 establishments in South Africa Professional sports leagues in South Africa