Once-mighty Birds face death knell

Embattled Moroka Swallows face the possibility of liquidation in court today.

The club's hopes for survival rest on the shoulders of staunch fan Gauteng MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi, who will go to the Johannesburg High Court to try to convince the liquidators that the consortium he leads has a solid plan to repay the club's debt amounting to an estimated R200-million.

"People who are owed by Swallows are the ones taking us to court," Lesufi said yesterday.

"There are various organisations and all of them want to salvage whatever they can get. We know what they want and they want the name of the team basically.

"Everything has been served at the South Gauteng High Court and I will be there on Thursday to deal with that aspect," he said on Wednesday.

Lesufi said he and his consortium had a detailed plan that they would present to the liquidators. He said they hoped the judge would be sympathetic and grant them an extension.

"As I said, it is a setback for us but this is something that we go through so that we can start from scratch. We just have to go there, argue our case and hopefully the judge will be sympathetic to us because for the first time we are not running away from our debt.

"We are saying let's manage it because we have managed other debt before.

"It is just that there are some people who know that the team does not have money but they want to be paid now."

Swallows' relegation to the SAB League in April was confirmation of the club's woes.

While the easy way out for Lesufi and his consortium would be to simply walk away and try to buy another premiership side's status, they have resisted the temptation.

Lesufi said they were reluctant to go that route as they preferred to lay a solid foundation themselves.