Richards Bay and Royal AM set for heated battle to avoid playoffs

Most of the focus on the Premier Soccer League over the past few weeks has been on the race for second spot between Stellenbosch FC and Orlando Pirates going to the wire in Saturday's last round of games. 

But there is an equally interesting race at the bottom of the table, where Royal AM and Richards Bay are involved in a fight to avoid dropping to the promotion-relegation playoffs. 

Cape Town Spurs were automatically relegated to the Motsepe Foundation Championship (MFC) two weeks ago and fourth-from-bottom Moroka Swallows are safe from the second last place playoffs position.

That leaves the team in that position, Richards Bay (27 points and a -14 goal difference) in a desperate position and needing a win at King Zwelithini Stadium against a Stellenbosch who will not want to allow the second place they occupy to slip in their battle with Bucs.

If Bay can beat Stellies, they need Royal (30 points) to lose against Moroka Swallows at Dobsonville Stadium.

The one statistic giving Bay a glimmer of hope is AM have a worse goal difference (-20), so a win for the Durban side and defeat for their Pietermaritzburg neighbours will leave Royal in the playoffs.

In the playoffs, which start on June 2, Richards Bay or Royal AM will find determined University of Pretoria (Tuks) and Baroka from the MFC, who qualified in second and third place in their league last weekend. 

Tuks coach Tlisane Motaung said the two MFC sides have enough quality in their ranks to go toe-to-toe with the team from the PSL in the playoffs and stand a chance of a return to the top flight. Tuks were relegated from the PSL in 2016 and Baroka in 2022.

“We have what it takes as Baroka and Tuks — there is a level of competitiveness and I have no doubt about that. Look at what happened last season when Cape Town Spurs played well in the playoffs and they went through,” Motaung said. 

“We [Tuks] are competitive. If you also look at our form in the Nedbank Cup, where we played three PSL teams in Spurs, Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns, we have what it takes as Tuks and Baroka to compete.”

The intrigue in the PSL final round is not only in the bottom half of the table but also in the middle, where Kaizer Chiefs, AmaZulu, Polokwane City, Golden Arrows and Chippa United are fighting for one spot to finish in the top eight. 

The slight advantage is with Amakhosi, who are in eighth going into the last round where they meet Cape Town Spurs at Cape Town Stadium.