Cape Town City, Orbit College, and Casric Stars kick off the two-week PSL promotional playoffs this week, aiming to win a place in the highest division in the land.
The Citizens finished bottom in the recently ended PSL season, but with Royal AM taking the automatic relegation spot, they get to fight another day. College and Stars finished 2nd and 3rd in the 1st division, and can join Durban City in the top-flight should they win the playoffs. But what is the history of the playoffs?
History
In the first eight PSL seasons (from 1996/97 until 2003/4), the two bottom teams in the top-flight were automatically relegated to the first division. The promotional playoffs were first introduced in 2004/5, with four teams playing a knockout format (semis and a final). This format was used until 2011, when the PSL went a different route. From 2012, three teams (instead of four) now fight it out to reach the top flight, under a mini-league format (home and away against the two other competitors).
21 – This is the 21st round of PSL playoffs, with 20 played before this edition.
Premiership domination
Of the 20 previous competitions, 11 of the winners have been teams from the lower division, while 9 have been incumbent Premiership teams. That stat alone makes it seem as though it is a balanced equation, but that is not the case recently. Premiership teams have won the playoffs in five of the last six seasons, having won only four of the previous 14. That’s more incumbents staying in the top-flight in the last six seasons than in the first 14.. This partly explains why recent online sentiment around the playoffs has turned negative – there’s a growing sense that the format feels unfair to lower division teams.
⅙ – Cape Town Spurs won the playoffs in the 2022/23 season, and are the only lower team to win the playoffs in the last six editions.
Competitive
While Premiership teams dominate the outcomes, the process of determining the playoff winner has proved very competitive. When we focus only on the mini-league playoffs (13 editions), only two teams have won the playoffs with maximum points (2019/20 Black Leopards and 2018/19 Maritzburg). The other 11 winners have dropped points at some stage, with two teams winning the playoffs with as low as 7 points from their four games. In addition, only three teams have scored 8+ goals in the playoffs (2019/20 Black Leopards, Cape Town Spurs & 2011/12 Chippa United).
8.6 – The average points total for a playoff winning team is 8.6 points (equivalent to P4 W2 D2)
These teams
In this edition, Cape Town City are appearing in their first-ever promotional playoff. They came into the top-flight through the purchase of Mpumalanga Black Aces’ status in 2016, and have been in the Top8 ever since. Likewise, Orbit College are appearing in their debut promotional playoff. Meanwhile, Casric Stars are in the playoffs for a second time, after appearing at the end of the 2022/23 season. However, that was a campaign to forget.
1- Casric Stars are the only team in PSL history to end the mini-league playoffs with zero points and zero goals.
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