Samir Nurkovic’s lawyer Davor Lazic has been left in disbelief that Royal AM are asking the player to pay the appeal when he has won the case at first, calling it as “one of the most bizarre things I have seen in my life”.
On Tuesday, Royal AM released a statement, saying the matter involving former striker Samir Nurkovic is still pending at CAS when the very same CAS agreed with FIFA that Royal AM was in the wrong to release the former Kaizer Chiefs striker without settlement.
The club added that Nurkovic is in refusal to play his part to pay for the “advance costs” on the appeal.
“The delay in finalization in this matter has been occasioned by the refusal by Mr. Nurkovic and FIFA to have an expedited procedure and the refusal by Mr. Nurkovic to pay his share of the advanced costs,” said the Royal AM statement.
“Royal AM FC has paid the full advanced costs which includes Mr. Nurkovic’s share of the advanced costs.
“It is worth noting that Mr. Nurkovic has now expressed his desire to have the matter expeditiously [resolved] and Royal AM FC is in agreement with this proposal, currently we await a directive from the CAS office regarding the appointed arbitrator in this matter, the procedure to be adopted and the allocation of the date of this hearing.”
Royal AM were giving an uodate on the Nurkovic case after talks came out this week, that they have another ban imposed by FIFA for failing to pay their former defender Ricardo Nascimento two months – May and June – after they terminated his contract last year.
“I just can’t believe it, and I don’t know what to say,” Lazic told iDiski Times.
“This is crazy and I’m not sure why they are going in this sort of direction.
“Everything is a lie. First, the delay in this matter, be in any sense connected to any refusal of Samir to pay, they missed all the deadlines to appeal.
“They then file some sort of appeal and for that appeal to be considered, they need to pay for the course of the procedure.
“Now it is my client’s fault that he didn’t pay the appeal out of the deadline, can you imagine that? Have you read anything or the case in South Africa that says they want the case to disappear, and they want you to pay their appeal?
“It’s nonsense and never in my life had a client, who won the case for the first instance, and he wants to pay the appeal against himself. It’s nonsense.
“The other thing they say they want it expeditious. If you want to have everything expeditiously, you shouldn’t have to appeal, because this is final and binding. Each sentence they put is not true. This is beyond my imagination on why they are going this far.”
As Royal AM has missed so many deadlines to pay Nurkovic the R12 million as the settlement, Lazic was asked why FIFA hasn’t issued a directive to the SAFA/PSL to expel or deduct points from the club.
“They already have this transfer ban of two transfer periods, so this is for now,” he said.
“After that, there is going to be more severe. This was the first sanction, but they have time to pay.”
Nurkovic has since joined TS Galaxy, where he has scored five goals in 13 appearances in all competitions.
