The Castle Premier League season has been delayed by a further week to accommodate the BP Top Eight competition and the new league season will now kick-off on August 23 and not August 16 as originally scheduled.

The league was initially scheduled to kick-off on August 2 but following the reduction of the league on Monday, officials decided to delay the kick-off by a week as they redraft the new fixtures.

PSL general manager said the programme had to be delayed further to accommodate the BP Top Eight, which takes place on the weekends of August 9 to 11 and August 17 and 18.

"It would have been unfair to the sponsors to have league matches on the same weekend as the Top Eight,” he said.

The new season will kick-off on Friday, August 23 with Clive Barker’s Manning Rangers welcoming newcomers Dynamos to the elite league in their 20:00 encounter.

There will be three games on Saturday and Santos will start their title defence at Makhulong Stadium to Jomo Cosmos on Sunday in one of the four matches on the day.

The focus may however, not be at Makhulong as Charity Cup kings Kaizer Chiefs travel to Pretoria for a potentially explosive clash against Sundowns.

The Premier League bought the franchises of two Free State Stars and Ria Stars, for R8 million each club in order to trim the size of this season's top flight from 18 to 16 teams.

The PSL board of governors invoked a long-standing resolution to reduce the size of the league and offered money to buy out the clubs and put them out of business.

The PSL board was presented with the option of buying out two clubs immediately ahead of the new season or only being able to cut down the size of the league at the end of the season next May by relegating two clubs and not promoting two from the first division, as is traditionally done.

The PSL board said the size of the league needed to be reduced because of fixture congestion and a decline in income for the country's professional clubs.

Fixtures

Friday, August 23


Chatsworth: Manning Rangers v Dynamos - 20:00

Saturday, August 24


Thohoyandou: Black Leopards v Golden Arrows - 15:00


Absa Stadium – EL: Bush Bucks v Wits University - 15:30


Jhb Stadium: Orlando Pirates v Hellenic - 15:30

Sunday, August 25


Newlands: Ajax Cape Town v SuperSport United - 15:00


Makhulong: Jomo Cosmos v Santos - 15:00


Rand Stadium: Moroka Swallows v African Wanderers - 15:00


Loftus: Sundowns v Kaizer Chiefs - 15:30