The South African Premier League (PSL) is home to some exciting domestic cups which have provided some memorable moments for the football fratenity, cups like the MTN 8 Cup and Telkom Knockout have produced some memorable matches in the past and also offered teams which are not good enough to win the league an opportunity to win something and indeed the so-called smaller teams have won these cups.
The Premier Soccer League have launched yet another competition called the DStv Compact Cup to be participated by all the 16 teams which make up the DSTV Premier League. Dr Ivn Khoza, the PSL chairman officially launched the tournament on the 13th of December 2021 and according to him, the tournament will be exciting because it is quite similar to the Carling Cup in that the fans are responsible for the team selection, technical team and name choice. The DSTV Compact Cup is themed as The Viewers’ Choice because the viewers are given centre stage in this competition.

The 16 DStv Premiership teams will be divided into four competitive groups and each of the four groups will comprise of a total of four teams which will compete against each other. The DSTV Compact Cup will take place over two weekends, 22nd January and 29th January 2022. Two Semi final matches will be played between Inland and coastal select teams on the first weekend (please note that the teams will be made up of players from all 16 PSL teams with one head coach picked through the means of a draw. On the second week, which will be on the 29th of January 2022, two matches, namely the final and 3rd / 4th play-off will be played. The DSTV Compact Cup is quite lucrative because the winning team will walk away with a prize money of a total of R1 million.
The 16 PSL member clubs are divided into four regions, comprising of two inland and two coastal regions namely:
Coastal Group 1: AmaZulu FC; Golden Arrows FC; Maritzburg United; Royal AM FC
Coastal Group 2: Cape Town City FC; Stellenbosch FC; Chippa United FC; Baroka FC (exception)
Inland Group 1: SuperSport Utd; Mamelodi Sundowns FC; Marumo Gallants; Sekhukhune United
Inland Group 2: Orlando Pirates FC; Kaizer Chiefs FC; Swallows FC; TS Galaxy FC
Below is the voting process for this competition:
13th – 19 December 2021
This is the period where the fans are afforded the opportunity to suggest team names and they can do this via the SuperSport TV social media pages (Facebook and Twitter).

20 December – 3 January 2022
This is a period whereby football fans across the country are afforded the opportunity to choose their favourite players from PSL teams and they can do this using this USSD code *120*830# or visit supersport.com/dstvcompactcup to vote (please note that the players selected for AFCON will not be eligible for selection.)

5th – 12th January 2022
The final squad lists will be announced on the 5 January 2022 with voting for the starting line-ups commencing on the same day and closing on the 12 January 2022.
Below is the structure of how the players will be selected by the supporters:
Five in-field players to be voted from each PSL team. These would be broken down in terms of positions to ensure a balanced spread of defensive, midfield and attacking players.
Two goalkeepers (per regional group of four teams) with the highest number of votes will be selected.
One Diski Challenge player from each of the four teams per group
Each PSL team will nominate three of its Diski Challenge players out of which supporters would be able to vote for one to be included in the Regional Group squad.
Coaches will be allowed to make two substitutions at any point in a match, while fans will be able to impact a match by enforcing six substitutions in a match, at the following intervals:
Two substitutions at half time.
Two substitutions in the 60th minute.
Two substitutions in the 75th minute