CAPE TOWN – AmaZulu lost six of their seven Premiership log points on Friday after the KZN club failed to comply with a Fifa ruling.
Fifa’s disciplinary committee found Usuthu guilty of a breach of the contract of Namibian player Phinheas Nambandi.
The SA Football Players Union (Safpu) assisted Nambandi in taking the matter to Fifa in 2014, after AmaZulu ended his contract with three more years left on it.
The Fifa disciplinary committee ruled in favour of Nambandi in September 2017, and ordered AmaZulu to pay “R1.086m as compensation for breach of contract within 30 days from the date of notification of the decision plus 5% interest per annum‚ as from 25 July 2014”.
The club appealed the matter with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and they upheld the Fifa ruling.
The Fifa disciplinary committee then made a final decision on August 10 this year, and gave AmaZulu until September 16 to comply.
Usuthu didn’t pay up, and now the PSL said in a statement on Friday that they visited the club yesterday to communicate the Fifa ruling and the implications of it.
The PSL said the Fifa ruling was as follows:
* Ordered AmaZulu to pay a fine of CHF 10 000 (about R144 000). That sum was to be paid within 30 days of notification of the decision to a named FIFA account.
* Granted AmaZulu a final deadline of 30 days to as from notification (i.e. as from 16 August 2018) to make payment of the sum contemplated in a CAS award referred to in the decision, and proof of payment was to be provided to the South African Football Association;
* Ordered that if payment was not made in accordance with (2. Above) then six (6) points would automatically be deducted without any further formal decision;
* Indicated that if after the deduction of these points, payment was still not made, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee would decide, upon the request of the Creditor, on a possible relegation of AmaZulu’s first team to the next lower division.
Due to the outstanding perseverance displayed by SAFPU with their consistent fight for the the working class rights. @Amazulufootball
were docked 6points for failing to comply with the FIFA Ruling after deliberately&arrogantly missing the deadline of the 16 September 2018. pic.twitter.com/fPDBXpzhlt
— SAFPU (@SAFPU_Official) September 28, 2018
The PSL confirmed on Friday that AmaZulu have now been docked the six points, and are now last on the log with just a single point.
AmaZulu team manager Qedi Dlamini told IOL Sport on Friday afternoon that the club were still deciding on their next course of action.
“The club will issue a statement, tomorrow maybe, or Monday. We just got the thing now and are studying it,” Dlamini said.
The new #AbsaPrem Log Standings 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/lLgIbC7FyO
— Official PSL (@OfficialPSL) September 28, 2018
@ashfakmohamed