[COLUMN] Merry-go-round mumbo jumbo
The PSL is turning into “mumbo-jumbo”, writes BK Matewe.
The former and late chief executive of the Premier Soccer League, Trevor Phillips, once nit-picked that regular name changes and license buy-outs was turning the PSL into a “mumbo-jumbo” league.
It rang true this past weekend when the fraught quest to play in the paid ranks was gifted with a transaction that saw them secure the franchise of distressed Bloemfontein Celtic and offload theirs to Masala Mulaudzi’s Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila. In simple dialectal, Shauwn Mkhize sold her National First Division (NFD) club status to Mulaudzi who had sold his franchise to pharmacist-businessman Abram Sello, who later renamed the club Marumo Gallants. Mulaudzi held on to the name Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila which will now exists and ply its trade in the NFD. The flamboyant Mkhize, having deposed of Royal AM to Mulaudzi, then maneuvered her way into the lucrative premiership by buying the status of Bloemfontein Celtic. Celtic have long hogged the headlines for their financial anguish and management inefficiency.
With the PSL having approved the transaction, it effectively means lurid Mkhize and the obstinate Sinky Mnisi will lead their charges to their first assignment this Sunday away to Swallows. Regrettably, the twosome will still need to appear before the PSL’s tribunal for their failure to honour play-off matches. What I find quite a potential white-knuckle is their meeting against Sekhukhune United on November 20, but that is also dependant on whether United will still be in the premiership if the Shauwn & Sinky plots comes to fruition.
The Royal AM matter has now been escalated to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for determination. CAS is the highest authority in the adjudication of international sporting disputes. Meritoriously, if that happens and Royal AM win their case, United will drop to the NFD while Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (formerly Royal AM because of the bought status) will play in the PSL.
Stomach in mind that the PSL to date has not yet declared United the NFD winners or have they been awarded the trophy and accompanying medals. Shauwn & Sinky have thrown the cat among the pigeons and as one African proverb goes; a monkey that eats grass instead of banana, is a goat.
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