The Betway Premiership’s newly formalized promotion/relegation playoff schedule is not a solution—it is a cynical amplification of structural rot, dressing a three-team, single-slot lottery in the clothes of high drama while ignoring the fractures weakening the entire football pyramid. The league’s announcement affirming the 2025/26 playoffs, with fixtures finalized at the Parktown headquarters, confirms that Betway Premiership administrators have chosen short-term television spectacle over the long-term viability of clubs that deserve a fair path to the top flight.
The premise is built on a deceptive arithmetic. Three clubs—Cape Town Spurs, Royal AM, and a National First Division side, likely the University of