FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
JOMO Cosmos head into a fight for survival with a dark cloud still hovering over their heads – the possibility of being docked points a few days after hosting Maritzburg United in an Absa Premiership relegation decider in Potchefstroom tomorrow afternoon.
Cosmos were dragged before an arbitrator this week at Safa House in Nasrec to determine whether they were indeed guilty of fielding an ineligible player in goalkeeper Thabiso Mobida, who was apparently improperly registered.
But by late yesterday there was no confirmation of the outcome of the case, which was postponed last week and went on until late on Wednesday night.
Reports suggested that Cosmos might be given a slap on the wrist in the form of a hefty fine, but neither Safa nor the PSL have set the record straight ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.
Coach Jomo Sono’s men currently have 25 points and are third from bottom on the Premier League table, with Maritzburg trailing them by just one point. University of Pretoria are the basement dwellers and hot favourites to get automatically relegated, but it is no surprise that all three clubs face the relegation axe given how their season has unfolded.
Ezenkosi have seldom moved away from the bottom three throughout the campaign and have won just six of their 29 league matches. The also have the lowest scoring ratio in the PSL having rattled the net on 19 occasions.
However, tomorrow afternoon is the most important match of their campaign. If Cosmos win, the likelihood is that they would have guaranteed their status in the top-flight for another year even if they are docked points.
Sono is adamant that they have to fight their battles on the field and not in the boardroom like their opponents Maritzburg, whom the coach claims are behind the Safa case seeking to determine whether Mobida took the pitch without an international transfer certificate after he played in Namibia prior to coming to South Africa to join Ezenkosi.