While Mpumalanga Black Aces and their fans may have already celebrated 'promotion' to the top flight of South African football, via the PSL Promotion/Relegation Play-Offs, nothing is official yet due to Thanda Royal Zulu's pending case which could throw a spanner in the works.
To make matters worse, no date has yet been set for the matter to be heard due to a delay in Safa securing the services of an independent arbitrator, and together with the fact that many NFD player contracts expire on Sunday June 30, a major problem exists!
While Derek Blankensee, the PSL's General Manager for Football confirmed, "We're still waiting for Safa to appoint an arbitrator," Aces captain Esau Mtsweni has lashed out at the unprofessionalism currently haunting the NFD.
"Seriously, this is a Mickey Mouse League," he told Soccer-Laduma. "The people that run football in our country don't respect us footballers. In my entire career I've never seen a professional league where teams finish on 27, 28 and 30 games. The PSL fixtures have been announced but there are question marks concerning two promoted teams."
Thanda are also eyeing a spot in the PSL, possibly at the expense of table topping Polokwane City, who have played three more matches. TRZ are arguing that it's not fair for teams to play a different number of games so if the Play-Offs were declared null and void, and clubs told to play their outstanding games, chaos would reign.
"Listen the whole situation is bad," concluded Mtsweni. "If I were a Sivutsa Stars player who'd just be told the club were not renewing my contract do you think I'd want to play? No never, it's like you're risking your life with an injury. The solution for me is for everyone to play 27 games so points must be deducted."
