Kaizer Chiefs’ have succeeded in their arbitration against the Premier Soccer League. The two matches the club failed to honour in December have been ordered to be played. With games in hand, this news leaves with a mathematical shot of bridging the gap to Mamelodi Sundowns and decision could have a huge impact on how the final league standings tally up.
After listening to both Kaizer Chiefs and the Premier Soccer League’s legal representatives over two days, it’s understood advocate Nazeer Cassim SC has given his verdict saying, “It is my view that Kaizer Chiefs was justified in not fielding teams for the fixtures on December 4 and December 8 2021. These two games must be replayed..
Advocate Nazeer Cassim SC. Credit: Theana Breugem/Foto24
Advocate Nazeer Cassim SC. Credit: Theana Breugem/Foto24
“There is much to be said that where possible games must be replayed in order to enable soccer to triumph and the best team on the day in question to be rewarded for its efforts. I am averse to the litigation process deciding the winner.”.
Advocate Nazeer Cassim SC
According to TimesLive, the decision will now be further probed by the PSL executive committee in a meeting on Tuesday as the league previously charged the club over their incident and rejected requests to postpone the match and subsequent appeals before the matter was escalated to theSAFA arbitration. The PSL still has recourse to take the arbitration decision to the high court on review and it would seem there will be sleepless nights for the PSL board as other clubs openly expressed displeasure with Chiefs potentially being allowed to play the two matches.
This seems to be the case as PSL prosecutor Zola Majavu has indicated that the outcome of the arbitration may make the DC null and void which leaves the league in a sticky position. Had the arbitration gone against Chiefs they would most likely have lost six of those points in their DC, which would put an end to their title aspirations.