Ramaphosa praises PSL as Africa’s best-organised football league

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has described the Premier Soccer League (PSL) as the best-organised football league on the African continent.

Ramaphosa made a courtesy visit to the PSL offices in Parktown on Monday, where he met league chairman Dr Irvin Khoza and chief executive Mato Madlala.

The president praised the standard of football in South Africa and the role the sport plays in the country. He also highlighted the growing international profile of the Soweto Derby.

“My visit here has been courtesy, just to pay tribute to PSL for what they have achieved,” Ramaphosa told the media in Johannesburg.

“They are the best-organised league on the continent and running the most popular sporting code, which is football.”

Ramaphosa said football remained South Africa’s leading sports code, citing figures presented to him during his visit.

Ramaphosa praises football’s national impact

“He [Dr Khoza] was showing me the measurement; he says their business is the happiness index, that they deal in the happiness of people, and that is so true,” Ramaphosa said.

“Seventy-seven percent of South Africans who love sport are supporters of football, and thereafter there is rugby. But football has always been the top sporting code.”

He said his visit was intended to recognise the PSL’s organisational standards and its contribution to public happiness.

“So, for me, it was to come and pay tribute to them and thank them for being the best-organised league and bringing happiness to our people and by the way in which they run the League,” he added.

Ramaphosa also praised the Soweto Derby, which is contested by Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, saying he had been informed that the fixture had been trademarked.

“And also, the derby, which I have been told they have trademarked it, is the best derby on the continent and globally,” he said.

He described the derby’s status as a significant achievement for South Africa and congratulated the PSL for its work.

“So, this is a great achievement for us as South Africans and so therefore, I wanted to come and say well done and keep doing well, and we are very proud of what PSL has achieved and what football has achieved in the country,” Ramaphosa said.

The president’s visit came as the PSL leadership continues to oversee South Africa’s top football competition and its most prominent fixtures.

Khoza thanked Ramaphosa for visiting the league’s offices in Parktown.