Court action leads to a SAFA ban for 6

THE South African Football Association (Safa) has announced that six Polokwane Local Football Association (Polfa) officials have been banned indefinitely for taking the country’s football mother body to court.

Initially 20 officials were charged but during the disciplinary hearing, which was held on March 8, only six members were found to be the main culprits and got the chop from South African football.

Ben Raseboya, Ngwako David Rapholo, Kenneth Ka Diaka, Matsobane Mojapelo, Rocky Peta and Rashela Phema were banned from all Safa activities.

Safa Capricorn president, Abel Rakoma, who is also a member of the Safa national executive committee (NEC), was quoted on the Safa website as saying that the sentence was meant as a deterrent to those who ignored the Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) rules.

“The ruling is a lesson to those who disregard Fifa statutes not to refer football matters to the courts of law. The culprits will now pay a hefty price and be a source of reference,” Rakoma was quoted on the website.

On September 28 2013 Polfa took Safa to court, insisting that the Safa national congress must not recognise the delegates from the region. This violated Safa statutes, especially Article 71.1 which says “Safa, its members, players, officials and players’ agents will not take any dispute to ordinary courts unless specifically provided for in these statutes and Fifa regulations. Any disagreement shall be submitted to the jurisdiction of Fifa, CAF or Safa”.

The matter was heard by the Gauteng high court which then ruled that hte South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee should deal with the issue within hours on the day of the high court’s ruling, but the matter was postponed to March 8 when the six finally knew their fate.

Efforts to get hold of the banned members were unsuccessful, but Safa said the suspended members had the right to appeal their sentence should they wish to do so.