Chiefs in danger as Rollers celebrate
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday May 20, 2016 12:30
Township Rollers were charged P1,000 for each of the games leaving them perched at the summit of the log standings with 67 points.
Chiefs’ spokesperson, Clifford Mogomotsi said they are appealing the decision as they believe the BPL DC failed to apply the necessary sanctions against Rollers.
“We are not happy with the ruling and we can never be happy with it. The BFA DC had ruled that necessary sanctions be applied as per article 6.2.1 but they used 6.2.2,” he revealed.
He said they are disappointed with the judicial structures of Botswana football in that they leave interpretations to the clubs who in the end fight amongst themselves.
“They do not guide us or give us directions. If there was no issue, then they should have dismissed the matter but instead they admit that Nato is a defaulter but then fail to apply the right sanctions,” he said.
Chiefs were expected to file an appeal with the BFA DC by yesterday.
Mogomotsi admitted it is a challenge for players trying to deal with the fact that they may be dethroned after being crowned champions two weeks ago.
He said the players however have all been aware what the possibilities are since there was another matter before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) already before Wednesday’s decisions. “This is the beginning. We might have lost the battle, but definitely not the war,” Mogomotsi said.
At the moment, Miscellaneous have not yet made a decision over whether they will appeal or not. “I will first have to give feedback to the rest of the executive committee and we will see whether we appeal or not. At the moment, we have not reached any decision,” club chairperson, Oscar Sefhako told Mmegi Sport yesterday.
Rollers meanwhile said they are happy with the Wednesday ruling and deserve to celebrate. “We are the champions because of the hard work we put in.
We are obviously happy with the ruling because it was the first time we heard of someone being penalised without a proper hearing,” club spokesperson, Bafana Pheto said.
Rollers have also lodged an appeal with the CAS as they maintain they followed the right procedures when they registered Nato in February. The BPL decision followed the BFA DC’s ruling last Friday where they ordered that the decision to deduct 10 points from Rollers be set aside. Rollers were initially docked three points by the BFA DC.
The BPL board through the acting chairperson, Rapula Okaile directed the acting BPL chief executive officer (CEO), Kitso Kemoeng to deduct further seven points from Rollers.
Rollers raised a complaint with the BFA DC, which convened last Friday and ordered that the protests by Chiefs, Miscellaneous and Police XI be referred back to the BPL DC for hearing. At the hearings, Police XI decided to withdraw their protest leaving both Chiefs and Miscellaneous as the only complainants in the ongoing saga regarding the registration of Nato.
BPL finance manager, Bosenogile Mpiwa said they will release the log standings after receiving the written judgement, but added that the champions may only be declared after everything has been dealt with. He said they will wait to see if any teams that feel aggrieved by the ruling will appeal. They have been given 10 days to take the matter further. But as it stands, Rollers have inched closer to snatching the title from Chiefs.