I can’t finish season with 15 teams: Khoza on Royal AM transfer ban

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) will ensure it finishes the season with 16 clubs despite the challenges faced by Royal AM, who are battling a Fifa ban on registering new players.

PSL chair Irvin Khoza said the league was aware of the appeal launched by Royal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) last month threw out the club’s request to have its Fifa transfer ban overturned.

The KwaZulu-Natal club approached Cas in a bid to end their contractual dispute with former Kaizer Chiefs striker Samir Nurković. Fifa ruled more than a year ago that the player be paid R12m after his two-year contract with Royal was terminated prematurely.

Due to the Fifa ban, Royal have been unable to sign even development players for their DStv Diski Challenge under-23/reserve team, which forced the PSL to exclude them from that league last month.

Announcing that the 2024-25 Betway Premiership winners would pocket R20m, Khoza said the PSL was doing all it could to help Royal find a solution. “We discussed it last week for the first time when it came to our notice,” he said.

“It appears there was an effort by the team to take the matter forward. We’re waiting for that report-back from Safa [the South African Football Association] because they’ve sent us a copy referral back to Fifa on what the outcome should be.

“We have to check with the clubs and remind them the outcome of this judgment says you can’t sign players in windows of so many months until you pay. While this is still open, it means you can’t register players, and it came at the wrong time. It was at the beginning of the season and some of them are above age [for the DDC], some have moved to other clubs, and you cannot fulfil the fixture with seven players.

“In the days when I played, we used seven players on the field. Even now it’s allowed [as the minimum by Fifa rules, before a game is abandoned] but it’s not good for the image of the game."

Khoza said if they knew at the time, they would have given them advice. “Because of the ban, they had to write to Safa to get an explanation that the ban is across the board — it affects all the structures of the club. But there was an effort by the club to get players [promoted] from their development Safa structures, but Fifa said they can’t use that. They’re completely shut out. It’s a matter that’s on the table for now.”

Khoza said the league was waiting for the outcome of the latest appeal launched by Royal. “We're waiting for the report-back on the appeal that has been made — maybe we can give better information after that.

“It should not have taken this long and caused pain for everybody. But as soon as it comes to our table, we'll resolve it as best we can. We did also call the club into the office to make them aware of how best we can help because I always say to my member clubs that when I shake hands with the sponsors, I say to them, ‘I’ve got 16 teams in the Premier Division and 16 teams in the Motsepe Championship’.

“I cannot finish the season with 15 teams. That’s bad business. Even the media are vying on the 16-team league, even the supporters are planning on a 16-team league. Everybody is planning around the 16-team league. It’s very important we finish the season with 16 teams. If this thing happens and somebody defaults in the process, not because of how the system works, it becomes problematic.” 

In an effort to find closure, the lawyer representing Nurković, Davor Lazic, this week asked the PSL to step in by paying the R12m through Royal's R2m monthly grant. Royal have not commented since the ruling by Cas but the official figure they now owe Nurković is R15m, with interest.

Royal face the possibility of being docked points by Fifa at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.