Royal AM's application to go to Constitutional Court dismissed with costs

Royal AM’s application to take their GladAfrica Championship promotion-relegation matter to the Constitutional Court has been dismissed with costs.

The application, part of Royal’s long legal battle to be reinstated champions of the GladAfrica (National First Division, or NFD) was moot in most ways, apart from costs, as the Durban club have finally attained their goal of reaching the Premier Division by buying the franchise of Bloemfontein Celtic less than two weeks ago.

The application to have the matter heard at the ConCourt came after Royal suffered defeats in the Gauteng South high court when trying to overturn an arbitration award of three points to Sekhukhune United. The Limpopo club consequently won the NFD, bumping Royal down to the playoffs, where the KwaZulu-Natal team failed to honour their four fixtures.

A ConCourt document that TimesLIVE has a copy of states: “The Constitutional Court has considered this urgent application for direct appeal. Is has concluded that the application should be dismissed with costs as no case for direct appeal has been made and the application does not engage this court's jurisdiction.”

The document states that the application was dismissed with costs.

Royal are believed to still have an application pending for the matter to be heard at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Royal were sanctioned with a R4m fine, of which R2.8m was suspended, by a Premier Soccer League (PSL) disciplinary committee hearing at the weekend. They were also deducted 12 points from the current season and suspended for a year on condition the offence of failing to honour a fixture is not repeated.

It is understood that those sanctions will officially pass to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM), who have bought Royal's NFD status.