Mamelodi Sundowns begin their Absa Premiership title defence away to Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium - three weeks into the 2016/17 season.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) finally released a full list of fixtures yesterday and revealed that the reigning champions would only be in action on September 14 due to their CAF Champions League commitments, where they have reached the semi-finals with a game to spare.
The Brazilians, coached by Pitso Mosimane, would have faced rookies Highlands Park on August 23 but are in Nigeria that week to take on Enyimba.
Downs have hardly had a break since the end of the previous season in May after they were thrown a lifeline by CAF and returned to the Champions League following the disqualification of AS Vita Club for fielding an ineligible player.
Mosimane said last week that the club had taken a decision to allow the players to go on a two-week ‘holiday’ when the PSL goes into festive season recess.
Their trip to Maritzburg will, however, come more than 10 days after their involvement in a domestic tournament, where they face city rivals SuperSport United in the quarter-finals of the MTN8 shortly after their return from playing Enyimba in Nigeria.
It is unclear, based on the PSL fixture list, whether the league has made provision for the possibility of Sundowns reaching the last four of the MTN8 as well as factoring in their schedule in the Champions League, which will likely clash if played on the weekends of September 16 and 23.
This could complicate a programme that was already delayed to only begin later this month because of the Olympics in Rio, and will again be forced to break from December 23 to February 7 next year as a result of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon.
Meanwhile, the first Soweto Derby of the new Premier League season between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs has been set for October 29 at FNB Stadium, where Amakhosi were 2-0 winners on Saturday afternoon in the Carling Black Label Cup, a pre-season game where supporters of the two rival clubs pick the starting line-ups based on the number of votes for each player.
The second Derby of the season between the two sides will then take place five months later when the race for the championship would have intensified.
The attention will not only be on these two Soweto giants or the title contenders alone, with two newly promoted sides hoping to make their mark.
Highlands Park, perhaps fortunate to have avoided facing defending champions Sundowns in their opener in the top flight, coincidentally host their fellow rookies Baroka FC at Makhulong Stadium on September 13. Baroka earned promotion to the PSL as outright winners of the National First Division, while their rivals had to do it the hard way through the play-offs but were quite impressive in their pursuit of Premiership status. And they have moved quickly to sign experienced players to beef up their squad, with last season’s Golden Boot winner Collins Mbesuma their marquee signing. Baroka, however, have decided to recruit players with only NFD experience, hoping that will be enough to help them stay up. They open their campaign by hosting Ajax Cape Town on the 23rd. - The Star
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