OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.30am.
SPORTS Minister Nkonde Balfour joined the fray in the Rothmans Cup saga that has seen more twists and turns than the usually volatile South African soccer scene ever has seen.
Balfour is concerned the legal wranglings, that have seen Free State Stars expelled from the richest national football competition in Africa twice, will affect SA’s hopes of successfully bidding for the 2006 World Cup.
Balfour has called a meeting with the SA Football Association on Friday. Safa CEO Raymond Hack says: “We have not and would not meet with the PSL officials before the meeting because in terms of the structure and our constituion (the PSL) are special members and it is Safa who are the controlling body”.
Safa and the PSL have traded legal decisions as much as any of the teams have kicked passes.
Stars first defeated Jomo Cosmos 3-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, before Cosmos claimed Stars fielded a player who was ineligible because he had not served an automatic two-match suspension for receiving four cautions.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) overturned the result but Stars successfully appealed to Safa and were declared winners again only for the league to call in a arbitrator, who backed the Safa verdict.
Cosmos went back to the PSL and were restored to the R1-million first prize event.
Bit Stars responded with another appeal to the national association again, and won once more only for the league to intervene on Wednesday and demand a further round of arbitration.
SA’s World Cup Committee chief executive Danny Jordaan, in Auckland for the under17 world championships, laughed off suggestions that the local crisis would affect the bid.