Black Leopards are back in the Premier Soccer League after buying the status of All Stars FC, as previously reported by iDiski Times.
Lidoda Duvha were relegated from the Motsepe Foundation Championship, which would’ve seen them play outside the professional ranks for the first time in the PSL era.
However, the club’s owners, the Thidiela family, were seemingly not prepared to give up so easily and made sure the club returns to the MFC after buying the status of Umlillo – as revealed by this publication in April.
All Stars relocated at the beginning of the season from Cape Town to Johannesburg after spending years in the mother city. The club went as far as changing the team name from Cape Town All Stars to All Stars FC.
In April, it was reported that the ‘Umlilo’ chairman Lunga Ncwana wanted to sell to anyone willing to buy the status, despite sitting in the top eight of Motsepe Foundation Championship at the time.
Despite some salary issues at the club, they even finished in fourth place, leaving a good foundation for Leopards to rebuild their team.
On Friday, Leopards confirmed that the transaction has gone through and everything is already approved by the PSL leadership.
“Black Leopards have unfortunately been relegated after finishing last in the Motsepe Foundation Championship,” chairman Tshifhiwa Thidiela said.
“We’ve been deliberating what our next step is. As a family we know football does not make money, but the club has played a massive role in the Vhembe region and Limpopo. It has created jobs and had a great socio-economic impact.
“There is more impact that the team is able to do, if the team plays in the Premier Division, a little less in the second division, but definitely much less in the amateur ranks.
“We’ve been receiving a lot of pressure from the community and we all agree this is not an ordinary team.
“The question was do we find someone that can carry on with the legacy, or do we as family continue. We came to the agreement that we as family will continue to make a contribution to the community and found another status to still continue in professional football.
“We can confirm we will have Black Leopards participating in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, it will be participating as Black Leopards.
“It is the Thidiela sons, who went and purchased a new status, as speculated we did purchase the status of Cape Town All Stars. We’ve also managed to get permission to change the name to Black Leopards – obviously we had to negotiate with the ‘old Black Leopards’ to get permission to get the rights to use their names and emblems.
“The process was only completed on Tuesday, when we got authorisation from the Premier Soccer League. We’ve bought the status of All Stars and have received the go ahead from the league to do the name-change and continue using the Black Leopards badge and brand.
“We will be based in Polokwane, administratively and the player’s training base.”
Tshifhiwa Thidiela also confirmed that the sons have asked their father David Thidiela to be the president of the “new Black Leopards”.
“The Thidiela sons are leading this and as the eldest sons they have appointed me to be the chairman of the club. We’ve requested our father David Thidiela to be the president of Black Leopards,” he added
“Because of the successes that he has managed to amass with Leopards, we felt as his kids that we still need his guidance.”