Player card debacle sees games canned

the game did not take place because their opponents were not in possession of player cards.

“Lion City players came with ID books and not player cards as they had not yet received their cards from Safa. According to the Safa rules players cannot be allowed to play without players cards, so the game had to be postponed.”

Swartkops Valley United Brother boss Luzuko Zondoni said: “Our game against Bees did not take place due to both unfavourable playing conditions and because we did not receive all our player cards. We only received three temporary cards.

“We had submitted everything to Safa on time but we have not yet received all our player cards.

“I went to the Safa office this morning to get some clarity on the issue and it was explained to me that the problem was that some of our players were still registered to their old clubs.

“The new registration system, called MySafa Verification Program had picked that up. So, now we need to get clearance for those players from their old teams.”

Meanwhile, Future Tigers team manager, Thembinkosi Simanga, said their game against Sibanye was postponed due to a waterlogged field and they had no player card issues. Sibanye’s chief executive, Brandon Bosman, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Klaas said the problem lay with fraudulent player movement. He said when the ABC Motsepe League season ends some of the players play in lower leagues to help their teams gain promotion or finish in a better position. But then they forget that they have to clear themselves once the new season opens.

“I will not deny that yes, during the registration not all players cards came back in all teams, but that is an issue that we are addressing.

“We had told all clubs that we have a new system called MySafa that is linked from Local Football Association leagues to this level.

“When the season ends some players move from the team and play for LFAs. Now when they register for ABC the system blocks them because they are already loaded.

“Now they want to blame the office when they don’t get their cards because of players movement that they were not able to control. That is one of the reasons why teams were not able to get their player cards.

“Teams must go back to those clubs that the players were registered in fraudulently to get their clearances so they are de-registered from the system, otherwise you will not be able to register them,” he said.

Asked if the clubs were told in time and ahead of the weekend fixtures Klaas said: “Yes, teams were informed because there were queries that we raised during the registration process. We were able to resolve some of the queries.

“The player cards issue is not our problem and that should not be made as if it’s our problem. It’s the team’s problem to discipline its own players in terms of moving.”

The results from the weekend were:

Bhizana Pondo 2 Butterworth 3, P E Stars 6 Try Again 1, City Lads 2 Tornado 4, Buffalo 1 Mthatha 5, Highbury 4 Matta Milan 4