THIS weekend will be matchday 20 of the Betway Premiership 2024/2025 season, but that is obviously already spoiled by the shenanigans of Royal AM, which has left at least half of the teams with games in hand.
And the rot of Royal AM continues, with Sekhukhune United, who were meant to play them in the league this weekend, will now be on Nedbank Cup duty with Milford FC.
That Round of 16 match is scheduled for Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu on Sunday at 3pm.
The winner of that match, which was also delayed by the suspension of Royal AM matches because of their troubles with the taxman, will face Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup quarter-finals.
All matches involving Royal AM remain suspended (they last played against TS Galaxy on December 29) due to their finances being frozen and taken over by the curator of the South African Revenue Services.
The league finally decided to kick the Pietermaritzburg-based club out of this year’s Nedbank Cup, thus allowing Milford and Sekhukhune to proceed with the last 16 encounter.
It is impossible to put Royal AM shenanigans aside as we look at five key talking points in this weekend’s action, which may see Sekhukhune get leapfrogged in the battle of the top-four spots.
Chiefs out to do Pirates’ ‘dirty’ job of stopping Sundowns
Sworn enemies are Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, but this weekend, you can bet they will be singing from the same hymn-sheet: put some brakes on Mamelodi Sundowns’ runaway train.
With 51 points on the board, Sundowns will be playing their 20th league match for the season, whereas Chiefs will be on their 18th. Chiefs are not chasing Sundowns as they stand at 25 points, but it is their pride that is at stake that Pirates, who are chasing Sundowns in the second spot on the log, will be banking on.
Should the Brazilians do a league double on Chiefs, after beating them 2-1 in September, they will rise to 54 league points, and that might just be it for Pirates.
Pirates to show their intentions in the title chase
Saturday will indeed be a very interesting day for Pirates. At 3.30pm, their eyes will be glued in support of Chiefs at Atteridgeville, and at 5.45pm, the ball will be thrown in their court to cut down some points between them and Sundowns.
Pirates, in their 16th league outing, will be up against strugglers Marumo Gallants in Bloemfontein.
Stellies and Polokwane can leapfrog Sekhukhune
As mentioned above, Sekhukhune’s non-league participation this weekend is compromising their top-four mission.
With 31 points, they occupy the third place on the log, but Polokwane (30 points on fourth place) and Stellenbosch (27 points on fifth place) meet on Friday night to open the weekend action.
However, the only result that will hurt them is the less likely one, a Polokwane City win in Cape Town. A draw will see Sekhukhune remain third on goal difference, and a Stellies win will only get the Capetonians to 30 points.
Arthur Zwane begins AmaZulu journey as sole head coach
The club statement that announced Vusumuzi Vilakazi’s resignation this week was straight-forward: that Zwane will remain the sole head coach.
He begins his solo tenure with the visit of struggling Cape Town City at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Sunday.
Vilakazi leaves Zwane and AmaZulu at position six, and together, they engineered a 1-0 win over City in Cape Town in December.
Relegation battle to take a direction
With Royal AM shenanigans disrupting everything, three clubs, Richards Bay, Gallants and Magesi FC, are smiling alone in their corners.
Most likely Royal AM will not play again in the Premiership this season, and therefore occupy that straight relegation spot.
This leaves the three clubs to fight only against that playoff spot, and fight they must.
The 14th-placed Gallants host Pirates, 13th-placed Magesi welcome SuperSport United in Limpopo (3.30pm) and Bay get a Chippa United visit in Durban (8pm). All matches will be played on Saturday.