Eye of the Storm Time bomb ticking at PSL
● Could there be a time bomb softly ticking away and waiting to blow the Premier Soccer League (PSL) programme into smithereens?
The question arises when several factors are taken into consideration.
In July, the National Soccer League (NSL) were granted leave to appeal against the decision by judge Denise Fischer that ruled that advocate William Mokhari had no jurisdiction in making a determination on the eligibility of Tendai Ndoro.
By fielding Ndoro‚ Ajax allegedly contravened Rule 54.1 of the NSL rules. Article 22.9 of the constitution of the NSL‚ plus paragraph 5 of the Safa regulations on the status and transfer of players, as well as article 5‚ paragraph 3 of the Fifa regulations on the status and transfer state: “Players may be registered with a maximum of three clubs during one season. During this season‚ the player is only eligible to play official matches for two clubs.”
Ajax paid a steep price — read relegation — for the Ndoro eligibility debacle as the Urban Warriors were docked seven points from three league matches in which the player was fielded by the Cape Town club.
Those games were against Platinum Stars (January 12)‚ Polokwane City (February 4) and SuperSport United (February 28).
Mokhari found that Ndoro was not eligible to play the games at issue and imposed a sanction of forfeiture in respect of each game won or drawn.
In her judgment at the Gauteng High Court, judge Fischer ordered that Mokhari’s decision be set aside. She also declared that Ndoro’s eligibility may only be decided by the Fifa Player Status Committee.
What would the alternative be should the league not succeed in the appeal? That is a question that was posed by one member club when the PSL board of governors gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre on July 12.
The appeal will sit in front of the full bench of three judges on a date still to be determined.
The possible outcomes throw up interesting scenarios with serious implications that can throw the programme in tatters.
If the judges rule in favour of Ajax, the league can concede defeat or pursue the matter further by taking it to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
Likewise, should the league win, Ajax can either accept that they’ve lost or march to Bloemfontein.
If Ajax go to the Supreme Court of Appeal and it rules against them, they will have no further recourse. The matter will be done and dusted.
But, in the event of Ajax getting a favourable judgment from the SCA, the implication will be that Mokhari’s decision is null and void.
Fischer had ruled that Mokhari had no jurisdiction to determine the issue of Ndoro’s eligibility to be fielded in the affected matches. With Mokhari’s ruling set aside and the Fifa Player Status Committee having declared that the matter must be heard by a local tribunal, the matter will revert to the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), which had permitted Ajax to use Ndoro.
A ruling in favour of the Urban Warriors will mean that they ended up in 15th position and were eligible to play in the play-offs. Your guess is as good as mine as to how exactly the league will undo such a massive scrambled egg should things escalate to that level. A possible solution is that Ajax claim damages and demand that they get back to the PSL the following season irrespective of where they finish in the National First Division. Another interesting aspect is how they will quantify the damages?
Relegation to the NFD, the PSL’s poor cousin, by every stretch of the imagination, comes with a hefty reduction of money teams get from broadcasting.
Ejection to the second tier also has an adverse impact on the sponsorship because the PSL is the land of milk and honey while the NFD is tantamount to a desert storm.
Demotion also means that the personnel on the books of Ajax are devalued.
There is also the small matter of reputational damage which will confront the club as they try to get sponsors on board.
How do they value the reputational damage? A prospective sponsor might say: What will happen in the event of Ajax losing at the DRC? That one is difficult to measure.
Ajax will have to go to be disciplined. They could very well raise an argument that they were issued with a card when they should not have been issued with one.
They were given permission to play by the DRC. They can look back to the seven points that were deducted and point out that Platinum Stars never protested.
They can also argue the permissibility of the Polokwane City appeal to the SA Football Association after its case was thrown out of the PSL DC. City’s appeal was unprocedural on two fronts.
Firstly, an appeal must be lodged within 72 hours, but City did so five days after the match. Secondly, the appellant must pay R35,000 to register their appeal.
City paid only R3,000. All Ajax need is to get one point back from the seven docked and that elevates them from the automatic relegation to 15th spot which qualifies them for the play-offs.
What does that do to AmaZulu, who were bumped off the top eight and were replaced by SuperSport United, who contested the MTN8 final with Cape Town City in Durban last night?
SuperSport benefited from all the rigmarole and they didn’t have a right to be there because, on the field, they didn’t deserve to be there. There is a potential monster of a mess on the horizon.