A suggestion by a bungling Premier Soccer League (PSL) to league champions Mamelodi Sundowns to withdraw from the Telkom Charity Cup extravaganza at Mmabatho Stadium next Saturday has been rejected with the appropriate contempt.
It was indeed the PSL who created the current embarrassing mish-mash in South African soccer whereby Sundowns, who have won the Telkom Charity Cup for the last three years, were confronted by a situation in which they would have to defend their title in the four-club event on the same day as they were down to play CS Sfaxien in a Caf Confederation Cup fixture a matter of 6 000 miles away in Tunisia.
A letter from PSL chief operations officer Professor Ronnie Schloss to Sundowns administrative director Afzal Khan states that ”due to the problems arising because of the clash of dates of your fixtures, we deem it prudent for you to withdraw from the tournament and advise all parties accordingly”.
In a reply to the PSL, Khan states that ”Sundowns take strong exception to the statement in your letter wherein you state that you note that we have elected to participate in the Caf competition — and accordingly invite us to withdraw from the Telkom Charity Cup.
”Indeed, it is, in our view, both disingenuous as well as unfortunate that you should suggest that Sundowns ‘elected’ to play in the Caf competition as opposed to the Telkom Charity Cup.
”It is the PSL who elected to host the Telkom Charity Cup on a weekend wherein Caf had already fixtured its club competitions.
”It is not only our obligation to our sponsors and supporters,” added Khan, ”but also to South African soccer in general to participate in Caf competitions for which we qualify, reminding you that Caf set down their competition dates as far back as December 2006.
”Your decision to elect the weekend of August 4 and 5 to host the Telkom Cup when Caf had already scheduled a fixture for one of the PSL’s clubs, shows not only a blatant disregard for Sundowns Football Club, its supporters and sponsors, but also to Caf and its club competitions.
”The truth of the matter is that — in line with previous years when the Telkom Cup was played either on the last weekend of July or the first weekend in August when there were no official fixtures — the PSL could have, and should have elected to play the Telkom Cup on July 28.
”Efforts to get Caf to agree to a change of date of our fixture in Tunisia do not detract from the fact that the PSL should never have scheduled the Telkom Cup for August 4,” continued Khan.
”Accordingly we must reject your invitation for our club to withdraw from the Telkom Cup, for which we have polled well in excess of 60 000 votes and are set to qualify with the second most votes, and again urge you to take the appropriate steps to rectify the clash of dates which, we repeat, is beyond our control.” — Sapa