Cape Town — The phrase 'No good deed goes unpunished' holds true for Maritzburg United, who will have to appeal probably at great expense, for three Premiership points after the Disciplinary Committee (DC) of the Premier Soccer League (DC) failed to make the award.
On Monday evening, the PSL prosecutor Zola Majavu broke the news that the DC had fined Cape Town City R100,000. The fine was for failing to produce player registration cards for a DStv Premiership match against Maritzburg United, at Cape Town Stadium in December last year.
The R100,000 fine, half of which was suspended, is well and good but what Maritzburg who sportingly agreed to play the match, after they protested to the match commissioner before the kick-off.
Soon after Majavu's announcement, Maritzburg chairman Farouk Kadodia shed some light on the matter while making media comment. Kadodia said he was fully aware of the rules as published in the compliance manual. He only agreed to play because a PSL official appealed to him to play for the sake of the sponsor DStv, who needed to broadcast a live match in that time slot.
According to Rule 4.10. of the PSL it states: 'In the absence of an original registration card, the principle of “no card, no play” will apply. A Player who takes the field despite not having provided an original registration card at the pre-match inspection will be ineligible.
In this case, all City players were ineligible.
What is mind-boggling is that the DC did not complete the process and award Maritzburg a walk-over and the resultant three points. Maritzburg had agreed to play the match as a goodwill gesture after the match officials opted not to apply the “no card, no play” rule.
Last year the PSL DC also did not do its duty after presiding over the Polokwane City - Sekhukhune United case. The DC was justified to fine Polokwane after they fell foul of the playing rules, but it failed to award the points to Sekhukhune. Later, Sekhukhune went to great lengths to claim the three match points in a court of law.
The question was asked repeatedly: why did the DC not award the points to Sekhukhune in the first place?
It was said afterwards that the DC did not apply its mind fully to the matter.
The same question will linger on now until such time that Maritzburg's appeal will be heard, hopefully not in a court of law.
Other than this hiccup, things have gone swimmingly since Majavu took office as the PSL's new prosecutor.
When he came into office, Majavu would have appointed the DC. He, however, does not influence their decision-making process and does not sit in on their deliberations. He acquaints himself with the details of the charge before it comes before the DC.
On Friday evening, Majavu will be in the full glare of the media spotlight after Kaizer Chiefs would have appeared before the DC (scheduled time 6pm).
Chiefs have been charged for failing to fulfil two of their Premiership fixtures in December.
As Majavu has previously explained, he would have contacted all three clubs (Chiefs and their opponents Cape Town City and Golden Arrows) to acquaint himself with the facts of the cases. In some cases, he would establish how clubs will plead to the charges, and sometimes the matter could be dealt with by paying an admission of guilt fee.
Majavu’s approach has been refreshing, and the soccer fraternity have been kept up to date with a slew of disciplinary cases over the last while.
It will be wonderful if Majavu’s demeanour would rub off on acting PSL CEO Mato Madlala and PSL chairman Irvin Khoza, who over many years, have little or no regard for transparency.
IOL Sport