Polokwane City Approaches Gauteng High Court in Matter Against Sekhukhune United
- Limpopo football club Polokwane City has approached the Gauteng High Court as they look to have a say in the matter against Sekhukhune United
- Sekhukhune were awarded the full three points last week after a PSL DC's ruling against City but it seems Rise and Shine are not ready to lose the battle
- The matter comes after the PSL DC ruled that Sekhukhune should get three points following the 1-0 loss to City in January
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Two Limpopo football clubs are battling it out in court and Polokwane City has explained why they took their matter against Sekhukhune United to court.
Rise and Shine has argued, through court papers, that they cannot just wait and watch whilst Babina Noko benefit unduly. This comes after the Premier Soccer League Disciplinary Committee ruled in favour of Sekhukhune last week to get awarded the full three points.
However, according to SowetanLIVE, City have approached the Gauteng High Court to challenge the decision.
The saga emanates from the fact that Polokwane failed to have U23 players on their team sheet in their GladAfrica Championship match versus their provincial rivals back in January.
Source: Twitter
As per the PSL rules, a First Division club should comply with the U23 rule and Sekhukhune protested before the game, which ended 1-0 in favour of Rise and Shine.
In a 48-page document filed in the court, City have argued that their late decision to challenge arbitrator Hilton Epstein SC’s verdict to award points to Sekhukhune is in the interest of all the teams in the GladAfrica Championship and is also in line with preventing bad precedence. City said in their document:
“Polokwane have taken immediate steps to challenge the award]. The effect of not setting it is that it sets a bad precedence for future disputes and Sekhukhune would unfairly benefit from the ranking of the championship.
“By awarding unmerited three points to Sekhukhune, the award unfairly benefits and advantages Sekhukhune against other teams in terms of its ranking on the championship log."
It is also reported that the former PSL outfit went to the court in Johannesburg to set aside Epstein’s ruling that they had forfeited the tie that they played against Sekhukhune in January with a 3-0 scoreline and a R100 000 suspended fine. The matter will be heard on Friday.
City cited the raging coronavirus pandemic as their reason why they could not provide all the players. Added the club:
“Polokwane obtained the test results at about 19h00 on January 1, declaring that three of its seven U-23 players tested positive. We were left with four to go to the game with.”
Looking at the log table, City sits at number 12 and they mathematically have nothing to gain from the matter considering the fact that Sekhukhune are top of the log by two points ahead of Royal AM, but both teams celebrated winning the championship following weekend matches.
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Meanwhile, KickOff reported that City official Tincy Tema said they could do nothing on the day as their camp was hit by the pandemic. Tema said:
"What happened on the day in question when we were playing Sekhukhune on the 2nd of January this year, it's something that was beyond our control, it could have happened to any club.
"Three of our under-23 players tested positive for Covid-19, and then we were left with four. We had seven players and three of them tested positive, and then we were left with four, there was nothing we could do, that's why we had to play the game with four under-23 players.”
In other sports reports, Briefly News reported that United have emerged as victors in their case involving City.
The Limpopo-based club has since been awarded three points as the case was heard by the PSL’s disciplinary committee (DC).
Also known as Babina Noko, Sekhukhune were awarded the three full points and are now sitting at the top of the GladAfrica Championship table.
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Source: Briefly News
