Johannesburg - The Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza has confirmed that the executive committee will reconvene on Tuesday morning to discuss the way further after Kaizer Chiefs’ decision to forfeit two games due to the outbreak of Covid-19 at the club.
A fortnight ago, Chiefs confirmed that they’ve written to the PSL, appealing to them to postpone their matches this month after 36 people tested positive for Covid-19 at the club.
But the league had been initially mum on the matter, forcing Chiefs to forfeit their games against Cape Town City and Golden Arrows respectively.
Amakhosi, however, returned to action on Sunday afternoon, fielding a makeshift team as they beat Sekhukhune United 2-0 at home – thanks to goals from Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Phathutshedzo Nange – to move to second on the standings.
However, Khoza, via a press conference that was held at the PSL's headquarters in Parktown on Monday morning where they announced the launch of the DStv Compact Cup, said the exco members will meet again on Tuesday to discuss Chiefs’ saga.
“I think it’s important to say that it’s not an easy matter. It’s a matter that was dealt with by the football department. And it was then escalated to the exco. It requires a lot of attention to detail to make sure the adjudication is given a thorough process and evaluation,” he said.
“It talks about issues that are very interesting. We are a rules-based organisation. Everything is easy because we refer to the compliance manual or the handbook for answers. But there are things that occur in our normal life that require us to apply our minds.”
“It is a matter that has a lot of debate on life and livelihood. At this point in time, we can say that we’ll convene for the fifth meeting tomorrow. We referred the matter to the office to deal with the issues that we’ve raised. We were told we’ll get the details today.”
There’s been different opinions as to whether Chiefs should lose the six points from the two games or be given another chance to play. This follows after reference to when Cape Umoya United lost three points against Cape Town Spurs after failing to honour a match due to a Covid-19 crisis.
“Whether tomorrow will be the final date to adjudicate, I don’t know. It will depend on the facts in front of us as the exco. Just to put this thing to rest, it’s urgent, important and it leaves a lot of uncertainty in the market,” Khoza explained.
“But everything that we’ll do, we’ll do it in the interest of all of the teams of the PSL. But we'll also take into account the issues of sporting integrity, reputational management, stakeholders and so many things. But most importantly, our clubs come first all the time.”
Meanwhile, Khoza confirmed the resignation of prosecutor Nande Becker and head of legal department Michael Murphy. He said the resignations were separate and not influenced by any members of the executive committee in any way possible.
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