Maritzburg United are going to play their first match in the promotion/relegation play-offs this evening and all eyes will be on the KwaZulu-Natal outfit on how they will do in their bid to retain their multi-million rand topflight status.
The Team of Choice will take on Motsepe Foundation Championship side Casric Stars in what is expected to be an entertaining match at the Harry Gwala Stadium from 19:30.
Fadlu Davids' side finished the 2022/23 season in 15th place on the DStv Premiership log, while Casric were third in the second tier. Cape Town Spurs are the other team participating in this year's play-offs, and they had finished second, behind eventual automatic winners Polokwane City.
As the play-offs kicked off on Sunday, Spurs put themselves in an advantage to push for promotion to the topflight after their 1-0 win against Casric in Mpumalanga.
Well-travelled coach Vladislav Heric is taking a look at what could and could not happen in this year's play-offs.
The Good
"What I have learned about football all my life is that the sport is so unpredictable. If any of the clubs is able to change from league philosophy to knockout philosophy as quick as possible, they might get positive results. If Casric or Spurs can master that, they can surprise people in this year's play-offs. Also, what needs to be taken into consideration is that Spurs have a very good and experienced coach in Shaun Bartlett who knows how to thrive in competitive games like these and he might surprise the other two teams," said Heric.
The Bad
"Look, my personal opinion and it's got nothing to do with any of the clubs, but the play-offs always give an advantage to PSL (topflight) clubs. Our First Division League became very weak since we came to the point where the U23 rule was introduced. From there, we never recovered and instead we crippled. Another point to make is that a lot of things have changed in the management point of view in the First Division. All the changes that have been happening over the years have weakened the First Division in comparison to the PSL. No matter which club from the PSL is there, my personal opinion is that that club will always have an advantage," the coach added.
The Ugly
Constant Ownership Changes In Second Tier A Disadvantage For Clubs
"Look, people buy clubs in the First Division and keep them for one, two or three years and they sell. We do not have consistency there. The other thing is that not all the people who buy clubs in the NFD (second tier) are football people. People are just adventurous. Not everyone is getting involved with the purpose of contributing to football but some are just adventurous. You end up having clubs going from one owner to the other and changing names, provinces and this and that. There is no consistency in the First Division, which itself is now called Motsepe Foundation League and was previously knowns as the GladAfrica Championship from being previously called the NFD and Mvela League and whatever other names. Without consistency and the solid foundation in that league, clubs will forever be inferior to clubs from the PSL (DStv Premiership). That's why most of the time we have the play-offs favouring PSL teams," he said.
Some Of Them End Up Not Paying The People
"Another thing is that with all the changes in the ownership of clubs, when the new people come in, they don't do the breakdown of expenses properly. Some of them end up not paying the people they are supposed to pay at the end of the month. It happens a lot at the teams in the middle of the log. They end up having cases (through the league's Dispute Resolution Chamber) and when that happens there will be instability and all of that and the whole team will end up struggling. I have been involved in football coaching in the country for 18 years now and mostly it has been with First Division clubs, so I know what I am talking about," concluded Heric.
Who Will Win This Year's Play-Offs?
