Cape Town Spurs chairman calls for PSL play-offs to be scrapped

The Urban Warriors finished top of the mini-league ahead of Maritzburg United and Casric Stars to return to the DStv Premiership after five years.

But Efstathiou feels coach Shaun Bartlett’s team is on the backfoot with little time to prepare for the 2023/24 season in the topflight.

"This whole NFD play-offs system is very unfair, first of all, to play them [play-offs] because if you think about it we've now played four games, we hadn't lost a game and we nearly lost it. Then you have to fight to get a team together to start training in four weeks' time," he said.

"So, you are always on the backlog, you don't have money because you didn't have a chance to get it. The guys need to take a break. It's just an unfair system and it needs to change."

The new campaign will get underway in early August, but Spurs still need a rest, pre-season as well as room to make decisions on loan players.  

Efstathiou will have to call in favours.

"We've got a fantastic relationship with other teams, we are gonna have to reach out to them and ask them to help us. We've always been reasonable so whether they can stay or whether they don't or whether we get new players or not, I think the basis of our team will remain."

Reports have surfaced of interest in top goal scorer Ashley Cupido by rival clubs, however, Efstathiou insists Spurs will hold on to their best players.

"There's no players going anywhere, I'm sure a lot of teams want our players but no. We've got to stabilise the team and make sure we are safe in the PSL. It's not gonna be easy, we've got to be honest with ourselves."