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Kaizer Chiefs have escaped a harsh punishment in their case PSL disciplinary case for failing to honour two league matches in December last year.
After much back and forth that ended with Chiefs pleading guilty, PSL prosecutor Zola Majavu fined the club R200 000 on Tuesday.
However, Chiefs will pay half the amount as 50% of the fine is suspended for a year on condition that they don’t repeat the offence.
Chiefs failed to honour matches against Cape Town City at home and Lamontville Golden Arrows away after a Covid-19 outbreak saw more than 50 positive cases at the team’s training base in Naturena, Johannesburg.
The PSL and affected parties cried foul, given that the league had already resolved that Covid-19 should not be used as justification for the postponement of matches.
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Instead of facing the PSL disciplinary committee, Chiefs opted for arbitration and the case went in their favour after Advocate Nazeer Cassim ruled in March that Amakhosi were justified in not honouring the two matches.
Chiefs eventually lost the two matches, but not without drama as the matter was already enrolled in the Johannesburg High Court for May 10. Chiefs later withdrew from the case.
Majavu said after the conclusion of the matter:
“They were in relation to Cape Town City and Lamontville Golden Arrows. That matter was put on hold, pending the finalisation of an arbitration, which Kaizer Chiefs had to refer to.”
“Upon the arbitrator ruling in their favour, I discontinued the prosecution and later the league executive committee took that decision on review, and they succeeded last week on May 10, therefore paving the way for me to proceed with the misconduct charges.”
“That particular matter was then enrolled for hearing for today, and I am pleased to inform you that the matter was indeed duly finalised on the following basis: Kaizer Chiefs pleaded guilty, and I accepted their plea, which resulted in the disciplinary committee returning a guilty verdict.”
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“We immediately proceeded to make submissions with regards to aggravation and mitigation of sentence after the PSL disciplinary committee ruled as follows with regards to sanction: Kaizer Chiefs were fined an amount of R200 000, of which 50% is suspended for a period of 12 months on condition that during the period of suspension, they are not found guilty of the same offence again.”
“They were further ordered to pay the cost of the sittings, which costs are to be administratively computed by the league and, once so finalised, they will be on forwarded to Kaizer Chiefs for onward payment.”
According to the PSL handbook, a club will forfeit three points shoult it be unable to honour a fixture, but Chiefs escaped this harsher punishment.
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