Ndoro: the time bomb is ticking
ABOUT-TURN: PSL HAS BEEN LEFT WITH EGG ON ITS FACE
Sy Lerman
The PSL, by a curious and misguided handling of the ongoing Tendai Ndoro availability issue, have created an effective football time bomb – with a controversial explosion now possible should the playing of the Zimbabwean international striker in seven games for Ajax Cape Town ultimately affecting either the Absa Premiership or relegation issues.
Relegation-threatened Ajax staged an impressive revival during these seven games with a number of invaluable victories, including one over title challengers Orlando Pirates.
But after issuing Ndoro with a player’s ticket and the League’s dispute resolution committee confirming his registration and right to play for Ajax, the PSL itself remarkably overturned the decision and ruled Ndoro could not represent the Cape Town club this season in accordance with a vague Fifa rule that stipulates a player cannot feature in the colours of three different clubs in a season.
The decision of the PSL executive was akin to the organisation deciding a winning goal in a game was scored from the penalty spot the referee should not have awarded – and thereby overturning the result of the game.
And what has come into question is whether self-interest has been an overriding factor in the executive’s somersault.
What has happened since is a series of appeals to Safa, an arbitration ruling, an appeal to Fifa for guidance and court actions that have left the outcome of what has been labelled an administrative debacle still undecided – and now apparently back in the hands of another arbitration decision after Ajax’s appeal to field Ndoro in the the fateful run-in to the Absa League championship was turned down this week by a Johannesburg judge.
“I believe it would be totally incomprehensible and an injustice if we were deprived of any of the hard-earned points we gained in the games in which Ndoro played,” says seasoned Ajax coach Muhsin Ertugral, “but we have, in any case, already been damaged by the PSL’s decision to reverse their original ruling regarding the player”.
Vitally related here is the PSL title race, for while Mamelodi Sundowns still hold a strong hand going into the final two rounds of fixtures with a four-point advantage at the top of the table over Pirates, it could conceivably result in an intriguing final, but a hotly disputed outcome if the result in the Ajax-Pirates game is altered.