Johannesburg – Royal AM has once again boycotted their last PSL promotion/relegation fixture against Chippa United away at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
The Durban-based club’s move leaves the PSL with no option but to throw the NSL ruled book at them as alluded by the League prosecutor Nande Becker in a number of media reports this week.
The national first division outfit, were required to play four home and away matches against Chippa, who have now retained their Premiership status after earning walkovers since Royal AM’s no-show. But a protracted legal dispute is looming between the league and the club.
“There were a number of court applications preceding the playoffs. I wasn’t part of those proceedings. In the event that there were disciplinary issues subsequent to the court cases then I would have difficulty with making an independent decision and call on whether to charge or not,” Becker said as quoted in TimesLive and Sowetan Live.
“Unfortunately I have got‚ and am in the process of doing‚ a hell of a lot of reading. All the reports are in‚ I’ve got all the statements from the witnesses.
“Now it’s just a question of whether their [Royal’s] defence has any merits‚ and whether there’s a case that is strong enough to convince a DC totally. And I can’t charge‚ for example‚ in the one match and not for the other. I will have to be consistent.”
The stand-off stems from the saga that started when Royal AM’s lower tier league counterparts, Limpopo-based Sekhukhune United were automatically promoted to the Premiership after being awarded three points while they were relegated to second position on the GladAfrica Championship log and required to contest the play-offs.
The awarding of the points to Sekhukhune comes after Polokwane City failed to include five under-23 players on their team sheet in a match between the two sides in January, thereafter Babina Noko protested.
The KwaZulu-Natal-based outfit, owned by reality TV star and businesswoman Shauwn Mkhize and his son Andile Mpisane is standing its ground, arguing their constitutional rights have been trampled upon by the PSL and that the play-offs should be stopped as stipulated in the June 14 ruling by Judge AJ Nyathi, which ruled that matches should be suspended pending the club’s appeal.
But on June 18, Judge Roland Sutherland insisted that the club should proceed to participate in the play-offs as Judge Nyathi’s order no longer applies.
Judge Sutherland also dismissed Royal AM’s application to have his initial order reviewed in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
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