Arbitrator rules in favour of Chiefs

Posted in News on Oct 05, 2005.

Kaizer Chiefs emerged victorious after the Arbitrator ruled in their favour to finish their case against the PSL’s Disciplinary Committee. This follows many weeks of deliberations and legal representations after the club disputed the SAFA Appeals Board decision to uphold the 2 match suspension sentence.

The Arbitrator ruled as follows:

1. He abolished or removed the two suspended lockout sentence

2. He ordered the PSL to review its rules and regulations

3. He established the basis or the requirement that need to be complied or satisfied by the Disciplinary Committee before arriving at a decision to order a lockout

The ruling of the Arbitrator therefore marks a grand step in the development and strengthening of governance and procedural fairness in favour of football clubs within the PSL and SAFA ranks.

The ruling is also a victory to Kaizer Chiefs and football in general as it states that;- while the Disciplinary Committee is competent to make an order for a lockout, however the DC should not arrive at this decision lightly. They must ensure that the following factors are taken into account.

a) There is no comprehensive crowd-management strategies in place

b) The issue of crowd-management can only be effectively dealt with through legislation that is in the pipeline

c) Most teams do not own stadiums thus they do not have control over the environment within which the games are played

d) In terms of the rules of the League, the PSL is responsible for the security and crowd-management of Category A games

e) PSL clubs do not have a controlled database of their supporters and spectators at the stadium

f) It is arbitrary to identify supporters on the basis of their club colours as a means to punish the clubs

g) The clubs do not have the capacity to control and manage their supporters under certain circumstances

In other words, the Arbitrators’ ruling should be understood to mean that the Disciplinary Committee would have arrived at a different decision if all the factors stated above would have been considered and further that the Arbitrator tacitly stated that the order for a lockout was inappropriate in this regard.

The ruling further highlighted that owing to the difficulties and complexities of crowd-management and security especially in Category A games, it would not be fair and reasonable to have the suspended sentence hanging like an axe over the club when it (the club) does not have control over the security and crowd-management issues, as a result, the Arbitrator ruled that the two suspended sentences be abolished as they can only produce unintended hardships. The Arbitrator ruled that the PSL must review its rules supposedly to make them consistent with the constitution of the country.

For enquiries:- Advocate Themba Langa on 0827898545

Share this article: