A matter that had people raising different opinions on whether or not Kaizer Chiefs’ fixtures should be postponed as they had 36 positive Covid-19 cases before the first round of the season ended was addressed by PSL Chairman Irvin Khoza today.
On the 20th of December 2021, the league declined Amakhosi’s request to postpone their December fixtures as they had many of their players caught by Covid-19.
Chiefs protested the PSL’s decision as they submitted an appeal just few days before December Holidays.
In a press conference that had fans’ all eyes on, Khoza explained the reasons behind the delay of the saga.
“There’s a big debate to say “this matter of Kaizer Chiefs took too long,”, Khoza said.
“Yes, it took too long because of the complexity of the matter, where there needed to be information gathering and to enable us to establish a process on dealing with it.
“The PSL fixtures affect a lot of stakeholders. If a fixture is not met the process regulates that there must be fairness and uniformity in dealing with what matters are behind a team not fulfilling the fixture.
“The PSL is a members’ organisation where there are rules and the spirit is that teams must play, but also if there are problems there must be fairness to make sure we accommodate members and don’t use rules punitively.
“There’s a big debate to say “this matter of Kaizer Chiefs took too long,”, Khoza said.
“Yes, it took too long because of the complexity of the matter, where there needed to be information gathering and to enable us to establish a process on dealing with it.
“The PSL fixtures affect a lot of stakeholders. If a fixture is not met the process regulates that there must be fairness and uniformity in dealing with what matters are behind a team not fulfilling the fixture.
“The PSL is a members’ organisation where there are rules and the spirit is that teams must play, but also if there are problems there must be fairness to make sure we accommodate members and don’t use rules punitively.
“There’s a big debate to say “this matter of Kaizer Chiefs took too long,”, Khoza said.
“Yes, it took too long because of the complexity of the matter, where there needed to be information gathering and to enable us to establish a process on dealing with it.
“The PSL fixtures affect a lot of stakeholders. If a fixture is not met the process regulates that there must be fairness and uniformity in dealing with what matters are behind a team not fulfilling the fixture.
“The PSL is a members’ organisation where there are rules and the spirit is that teams must play, but also if there are problems there must be fairness to make sure we accommodate members and don’t use rules punitively.
“When we were told there was a request for us to reconsider the decision of the football department … [because] the compliance manual dictates that is the only department with the responsibility to change the fixture, not the executive committee.
“Having done that the executive committee met on December 3 — a meeting that was already taking place, but we included this matter.
“The first important thing to do was establish a process in adjudicating the matter to ensure we gave it a fair chance and did not use a mechanical approach.
“I know the media is waiting for us to make pronouncements on this matter. I must indicate that this is a matter that is part of a process.
“As the executive committee we declined the request and the matter is at the legal division — whether at the legal department, or another department, I can’t say now.”
Khoza said he can’t comment more, as the appeal from Chiefs restricts to do so.
“Because the process is still ongoing it will be fair that I hold back the information to give the process a chance to reach its conclusion.
“We did that dealing with the [promotion dispute] matter of Sekhukhune United and Royal AM. There was pressure from the media, executive members and some clubs to give updates, but we cannot give a running commentary on a matter that is still on the conveyor belt.”
