Fifa slaps Swallows with a massive player transfer ban
Club sanctioned over money owed to Cuckovic, Mandic
Swallows FC have been slapped with a ban from signing players by the world’s governing body Fifa.
The length of ban is for for three registration periods.
This comes after the club terminated the contracts of Serbian Obren Cuckovic and Vladimir Mandic from Slovenia in 2015.
The duo reported Swallows to Fifa over monies owed to them by the club.
Swallows appealed and took the matter to the highest sports dispute resolution office, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, which upheld the ban decision made in February.
Swallows were served with the papers on Thursday, which Sunday World has seen.
“Swallows shall be banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, up until the due amount is paid. The maximum duration of the ban shall be of up to three entire and consecutive registration periods,” reads part of the Fifa statement.
Mandic and Cuckovic were signed in 2014 when Zeca Marques was still the coach. A former Swallows official has revealed that the arrangement was that if the club got relegated to the national first division, then their contracts would be null and void.
Swallows were relegated in 2015. “We got the letter from Fifa and we have some reasons to try but we cannot comment until our legal department has confirmed the position of the club. There are some technicalities that need to be visited. So, we cannot make any official comment right now except to confirm that we received the papers from Fifa ... We will then update the public,” Swallows CEO Sipho Xulu said.
Swallows owner David Mogashoa declined to comment on the matter.
Other South African clubs that have been barred from signing players by Fifa include Chippa United for failure to pay Augustine Kwem’s signing-on fee. Chiefs were also hard hit in 2020 after their controversial signing of Madagascar international Andriamirado “Dax” Andrianarimanana in 2018.
His previous club, Fosa Juniors, had disputed the move and took the matter to Fifa.