PLFA Diski Challenge – Final Debrief

The time is now. It is all systems go. The moment of the truth. The competition is here. Ready or not – we proceed. 

This is the final debrief prior to the commencement of the Diski Return Challenge. This communication is aimed to helping all the participants to know everything there is to know about the competition before we start.

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Branding 

The Tournament will be branded with the name PLFA Diski Return Challenge. Each division will have its own banner, although all banners will look the same. To see these within context, go to this link.

We were hoping that by now we would have gotten a sponsor with whom we would have shared the branding. Unfortunately not yet. 

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Under 13 and 15 Changes

Earlier when we started we announced that the Under 13 and 15 components of the competitions would be sponsored by Mr. Munyai from Supersport United. We regret to report and confirm that this will no longer be the case. Mr. Munyai has shared with us his preference that he would like to rather sponsor a pre-season tournament. We trust that this will still happen around February 2021.

However, we will still continue with the competition re-branded back to PLFA Diski Return Challenge. This is to ensure that all our players have access to competitive football before the end of the year.

The major change is that the prizes will no longer include soccer kits. It will only be Trophies and medals, unless a sponsor is obtained, where more prize elements will be added.

Also, one of participants came back to alert the association that they are not ready for the competition. These are Kalafong Heights FC. They have since been replaced with Pretoria Callies FC.

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Competition Fees

In trying to be true to the Football Competitions Policy of the association, which stipulated that competitions hosted by the association will not have cost implications to Members, we are trying to source funds to ensure that this remains the case. However, should we fail to source funds, this competition will have to be funded by the Members in what will be registered as a special deviation from the Policy.

The Fees are provisionally as follows:

• Under 11: R700.00
• Under 13: R500.00
• Under 15: R600.00
• Under 17: R1,500.00
• Super League: R1,300.00

The above fees are influenced by the following factors:

• Cost of Match Officiating;
• Shared Costs (like Compliance, Catering, etc)
• Prize Money;
• Silverware; and
• Number of Clubs participating.

These fees will have to be paid by the 13th of November 2020 if the external funding does not come through by the 10th of November 2020. Members will be updated timely about this.

Members who deposit the money, only to have funding later, such monies will be re-allocated to the fees of the next season.

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External Funding

We have been mentioning External Funding, or Sponsorship a lot previously and in this communication. We have made requests, some came back declining, citing COVID19 impact. We have however received good feedback from those, with a promise of working together in the future. 

We still await funding request feedback from two organisations. Once funding comes through, the Registration Fees mentioned here-above will be scrapped.

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PRIZES

The above mentioned funding, either by Registration Fees or by Sponsorship, will cause for the affordability for the following prizes:

• Trophies
• Gold Medals
• Silver Medals
• Under 11 Prize Money R750.00 / R500.00
• Under 13 Prize Money R1,000.00 / R750.00
• Under 15 Prize Money R1,500.00 / R1,000.00
• Under 17 Prize Money R2,000.00 / R1,500.00
• Super League Prize Money R3,000.00 / R2,000.00

Giving of these prizes to winners depends very much on funding being complete through whichever channel mentioned here-above.

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Competition Rules

Competition Rules have been concluded and will be shared with Members as this post is published. All Members are expected to comply with these. Also, the SAFA Health and Safety Directives will be shared with Members to ensure that COVID19 prevention is elevated as part of this competition. 

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Team Lists

Team Lists and Match Reports templates will be shared with participants and Match Officials respectively. These will be share both electronically and on paper form. Should the clubs deplete or loss paper forms, they will be required to print the electronic forms out at their costs.

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Time Management

Participants are required, also as part of the Rules, to be at the match venue at least 45 minutes prior to their Match. This will allow for all the compliance checks to be conducted qualitatively. 15 minutes prior the match, all the checks must have been completed with the Match Officials. 5 minutes prior to their match they must be inside the field of play. Deviation from this will be a misconduct and the corrective actions stipulated in the rules shall apply.

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COVID19 Compliance

All people entering the match venue must be sanitized and screened. Within the venue, they must keep safe physical distance and wear masks unless they are warming up or playing.

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Home Teams Responsibilities

For this competition, the responsibility of the Home Team towards the facilities will be the erecting of the Corner Flags and proper dressing of the goal nets. All other facility related responsibilities will lie with the association.

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Higher Leagues

The association would like to take this opportunity to wish its affiliates, Tshwane University of Technology Fc, Vikings FC and Pretoria Callies Fc well on their Play Offs. We are really proud of them.

TUT and Vikings, playing at the Regional Level, will be competing against each other and with other outfits for the number spot of the region, the winner of which will proceed to the ABC Motsepe play-offs. This will be happening from the 21st of November.

Pretoria Callies FC on the other hand is at the ABC Motsepe League. They have been declared Gauteng’s winners and will be playing for the NFD (Glad Africa) Play-offs. This will be happening from the 9th of November.

Well done guys.

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Conclusion

This is the totality of football. We have been calling for it, it is now here. All those who rushed to go on training and playing before they were allowed to do so, the time is now to show how hungry you really were for football. Hence the name of the competition, fitting to say this is the real return of diski after such a long time.

The fixtures are here.

Let the games begin!!!!