DURBAN – AmaZulu are still hopeful that they will get their six points back.
Usuthu were docked six points early this season after failing to comply with the Fifa ruling to pay Namibian player Phineas Nambandi over a million rands for terminating his contract in 2014.
AmaZulu swept past Free State Stars and Baroka in their home league ties but those points were lost.
As a result, Usuthu sit at the foot of the Absa Premiership table.
General manager at Usuthu, Lunga Sokhela is hopeful that they will put the matter to bed before the end of the year.
“Fifa wrote back to us and we had to make a submission on October 22. We wrote back on the second of October to SAFA asking for another matter of clarity. SAFA has responded to them.
"So, we are just waiting and we hope that this issue can come to finality before the end of the year in order to know whether we are getting the six points back or not, but it is all in Fifa’s hands,” Sokhela said.
AmaZulu have four points after 10 games. Four points separate them from the second-bottom side, Maritzburg United.
“The payment was made but there were another two issues that needed to be ironed out and that should have been ironed out a long time ago. We are hoping that those can be ironed out quickly,” he added.
Usuthu battled relegation regularly in recent seasons but Sokhela is confident that they will survive the chop should they not get the six points back.
“Sitting at the bottom of the table is not ideal but we know that we are not sitting where we are because of performance. We are extremely positive. This happened early and players took it very maturely and we understand that things like these happen in football.
“It is for us to handle it legally and we will take it from there. I’m not worried that maybe we are not going to catch up. The team is good enough to catch up.” Sokhela concluded.