The South African under-23 team play in a qualification tournament in Morocco at the end of November, from which three teams will qualify for London, but the dates of this event fall outside of the FIFA calendar and club teams are not obliged to release their players.

With South Africa failing to qualify for the African Nations Cup, which takes place in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in January, more importance has been placed on the Olympic tournament and the Premier League is looking to accommodate their attempts to qualify for London 2012.

It had been suggested that the Premier League could continue to play matches during the African Nations Cup and then play no games during the Olympic qualifiers next month.

But when the Premier League's Executive Committee met last week, they decided to continue to hold a break during the tournament.

"We took this decision to give the Africa Cup of Nations the respect it deserves and to ensure that there will be no counter attraction during the continental showpiece," League chairman, Dr Irvin Khoza (pictured), told the PSL's official website.

"Clubs are advised that there should be no organised events during the tournament except training matches.

"This break will enable players to recuperate after what has been a very congested fixture."

The PSL did, however, request a meeting with SAFA to discuss the Olympic qualifiers after a plea by under 23 coach Shakes Mashaba, who wants his best players available for the tournament in Morocco, which runs from November 26 to December 10.

"There are issues I want us to consider and one of the issues is the under 23s," said Khoza.

"I am now told the under-20s will also have a tournament in November, which creates a lot of problems because that affects the Telkom Knockout Cup and league fixtures.

"It is a bit of challenge."

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