Maritzburg boss fears fraud in relegation dogfight
Maritzburg United chair Farouk Kadodia is fearful of sinister forces in the final matches of the DStv Premiership, especially in the relegation fight when Chippa United host Golden Arrows at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.
The Team of Choice concluded their season on Tuesday at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria with a 1-1 draw against Mamelodi Sundowns.
The result saw them move from the bottom to 14th on the log table with 30 points, one better than Chippa and Marumo Gallants, who will play their last matches on Saturday.
And should Gallants win against Swallows at Dobsonville, and Chippa beat Arrows, that would mean Maritzburg
would be relegated to the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
Kadodia had already expressed disappointment in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) for staging the team’s last match on Tuesday instead of on Saturday, along with other fixtures involving other teams in the relegation zone.
He believed that gave Chippa and Gallants an unfair advantage.
Kadodia has criticised the league for creating an opportunity for possible fraud in the relegation fight on Saturday.
“The situation now is everyone must understand that you can’t give an unfair advantage to two other clubs fighting for relegation for four days.
“I mean we don’t need a rocket scientist, we’ve all seen the National First Division [and] whatever transpired there,” Kadodia told the media after the match at Loftus.
“We had a coach lamenting the kind of performance by certain players and we cannot get into that certain level.”
He was referring to Kwanele Kopo of Pretoria Callies, commenting about his players’ effort in their 4-0 loss to eventual NFD winners Polokwane City at the weekend.
“I’m concerned for one, that we had a very bumpy situation in 2016, the year that we survived on the last day against Jomo Cosmos.
“Other results were swinging differently until we scored three goals and then people decided that they need to fight for top eight, so we don’t want the situation to come around where there are things that are not good for football.
“I mean the acting [PSL] CEO [Mato Madlala] they [her team Arrows] are playing their last game against Chippa and we all know that.”
Kadodia also said that Maritzburg played their match against Sundowns under protest and were hoping the league would react in time to postpone the fixture. “Our disappointment with our stakeholders regarding this match 30 was raised 10 days ago when we knew before the game against Stellenbosch and we raised the issue [in terms of] Fifa fair play,” he said.
“This match here should have been reviewed.
“I fully understand that fixtures were drawn up in July 2022, but you cannot use those fixtures and not go and review the situation.
“We suggested that the three teams play tonight [Tuesday] or on May 23 and we were turned down.”
Kadodia also questioned why the league was extended by a week when Orlando Pirates were playing in a continental competition two seasons ago, but the PSL could not do the same now.