The South African Football Association is preparing to "throw the book" at Ajax Cape Town if the club fails to honour an African Confederation Cup fixture against Sagrada Esperanca in Angola on Saturday.
An angry Safa CEO, Dennis Mumble, told The Times yesterday that there were several options at Safa's disposal; they could even ask the Premier Soccer League to remove Ajax from the top-flight roster if the Cape club carries on trying to withdraw from the continental tournament.
''Our position is that they may not withdraw from this competition," said Mumble. "I made it clear when I met them [yesterday] that I am very angry. The rules are very clear. There will be massive consequences if they are not on that plane to Angola."
Ajax officials had said publicly on Friday they feared for the safety of their players and would not to go to Angola on Friday. This only served to further infuriate Mumble:''I will charge them with violating communications protocols for that. We will take disciplinary action against them."
Ajax had said communication between themselves and their Angolan hosts was poor. Efforts to finalise travel arrangements had failed. They added that Dundo, the match venue, was some 1200km from Luanda and they could not be expected to travel that far by bus.
The Times has seen a copy of an e-mail sent by the Angolans disputing Ajax's claims.
