Chiefs’ Covid-19 mess puts 2021/22 campaign at risk
City played under protest as matter goes to high court
The PSL and Kaizer Chiefs Covid-19 matter that resulted in Amakhosi not honouring their matches in December is causing ructions in the league, threatening to throw the 2021/22 campaign into disarray.
Chiefs’ match against Cape Town City yesterday was played under protest, which means that if City win the high court case on May 10, they will be given three points. But they beat Chiefs 2-1 yesterday. Chiefs will pay for the costs if they lose the case.
Amakhosi did not honour their two matches against City and Golden Arrows after their Naturena headquarters saw 31 staff members infected by Covid-19 in December.
City approached Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe this week seeking arbitration on the game, since they did not want to honour yesterday’s match after making themselves available for the match in December. “I dismissed their application because it was on the same facts that arbitrator Nazeer Cassim SC ruled on when he ruled in favour of Kaizer Chiefs. If the court rules in favour of the league, then Chiefs will have to pay for the cost of the two matches and lose points [they have already lost both matches]. So, it will all be about the outcome and the result of the match against City which they lost,” said Motlanthe. On Friday, PSL lawyers wrote a scathing letter to City. “Your client has persistently failed to deal with the fact that it has been a respondent in the review proceedings launched by the NSL since 28 March 2022. It has therefore known about the scheduled game since that date. It has raised no concerns at all about that scheduling during the court proceedings,” read the letter in part.
“Furthermore, it was kept fully informed of the approach to the deputy judge president for a special allocation of the matter. It had every opportunity to raise any objection it had with the deputy judge president around the scheduling of the special allocation, as well as the undertakings given by the NSL [/PSL] and
Kaizer Chiefs to facilitate that special allocation. It elected, however, not to raise any objection throughout the court proceedings.”
City boss John Comitis has raised their objections to playing the match. “The insinuations that we are party to or part of this decision is untrue. We categorically do not agree to this process and have responded in writing to the league and the parties on two occasions now, reserving our rights as a club to defend our position in this matter,” City stated.