The ruling in Kaizer Chiefs favour by Advocate Nazeer Cassim has been questioned and could be overturned, a legal expert has claimed.
On Friday, Cassim had announced his ruling in Chiefs’ favour, ordering the two December fixtures against Cape Town City and Golden Arrows, which Amakhosi missed due to a Covid-19 outbreak, to be replayed.
Many had expected the ruling to hand a walkover against Chiefs as a previous case went against Cape Umoya in the GladAfrica Championship last season, but Cassim had stated he’s “averse to the litigation process deciding the winner. It is better that the results of the match be determined in the field.”
However, legal expert Piet Tibane, Director of Morakile Inc Attorneys, stated that Cassim’s ruling is incorrect because the league’s rules on circumstances relating to Covid-19 have not changed.
“It’s mind boggling to really know why they decided to go to the arbitrator instead of going through the PSL DC,” he told Thabiso Mosia on SAFM Sport On.
“But as we all know, Kaizer Chiefs cannot discipline itself as it’s a member of PSL. So PSL ought to have taken an action against Kaizer Chiefs for failure to honour the match[es].
“Maybe it’ll help to bring the circlular that has been issued last year by the PSL, it says the following: ‘circumstances related to Covid-19 will not constitute exceptional circumstances on their application to miss a match’ and it’s binding to all members until it has been varied by the committee.
“The directive that has been given by the PSL remains binding for Kaizer Chiefs notwithstanding the fact that they approached the PSL for postponement.
“But let’s look at what Kaizer Chiefs did, instead of challenging the circular itself, they opted to challenge the decision by the PSL not to postpone their matches, which to me is incorrect.
“Because what they ought to do first, whether we like the decision by the PSL or [not], even in court, you cannot chose to not follow it because since it’s there it has not been challenged or changed by the court of law, it remains binding.
“What Chiefs ought to have done is to challenge the lawfulness of the circular instead of challenging the ruling of denying them to postpone the matches.
“Because if the PSL attended to the request by Kaizer Chiefs to postpone the matches, they would’ve acted against their own circular, their own rules, and they cannot do that.”
Tibane also blamed the PSL for not charging Chiefs for not honouring their fixtures and stated he believes Cassim’s arbitration ruling could be overturned.
“As a matter of fact PSL ought to have charged Kaizer Chiefs, we’ve seen in the past where there was a violation of the rules, PSL would charge the respective team and the decision will be taken, something will be imposed,” he added.
“But in this instance things happened differently, so it is correct to say PSL were slow in acting.
“It is my view that this decision is likely to be reviewed because it was incorrect for Cassim the way he ruled.
“The rules stated Covid-19 cannot be used as a circumstance to forfeit the match. I thought the team would challenge the circular, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
The PSL Executive are believed to have met for an emergency meeting on Tuesday, 22 March, but are yet to release a public comment on the matter.
