Harsh punishment for Liverpool

The South African Football Association (Safa) in Tshwane has announced that it had terminated Liverpool’s participation in the Men’s Regional League.

This was after the football body found the team guilty of conceding three walkovers in the regional league.

According to Safa Tshwane’s competition administrator Lerato Moshoeshoe, Liverpool had been held to a walkover in three matches consisting of the games against City Stars on October 2, 2021, Ma-Lions on January 6, and Vikings on April 8.

“As a result of the walkovers, the competition committee invoked article 28.5 of the competition rules. This states that a team conceding three walkovers in a league with a stream with 10 or more teams and/or a team conceding two walkovers in a league with eight or more teams in a season will have their participation terminated from Safa. This will be subject to the prescribed disciplinary procedures and a recommendation to that effect to the Safa competition committee.”

The decision to terminate Liverpool’s participation in the league has favoured four teams, including Ma-Lions, Tshwane United, Touch and Chillie Boys.

“The effect of the decision is that the four remaining matches of Liverpool Football Club are declared walkovers in favour of the opposition teams.”

The games declared walkovers are the match between Liverpool and Ma-Lions on April 29, Tshwane United against Liverpool on May 7, Liverpool against Touch on May 14 and Chillie Boys against Liverpool on May 21.

This suggests that Liverpool completed the season with four points in 28 matches in the log standings. They have failed to win any match, drew four times and lost 24 games. They are at the bottom of the log.

Liverpool chairperson Elias Shabalala said he was disappointed with the committee’s decision to relegate his team from the league.

“I have not received any communication advising and inviting me to the disciplinary hearing to state my side of the story,” Shabalala told Rekord.

He was in the process of appealing to the committee to review the matter and provide him with a fair opportunity to state his side of the story.

He said he loved soccer so much that he felt extremely heartbroken about the hearsay from the people he knew that his team had been relegated from the league.

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