The battle for the soul of South African football is on the brink of becoming a full-blown war after it emerged that the South African Football Association (Safa) has sent a letter to Fifa's Zurich headquarters and reported the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to the sport's governing body.
Sunday Times can reveal that the letter was sent this week after the PSL fiercely objected to Safa's R50 million partnership with OUTsurance that is to sponsor referees over five years.
The standoff culminated with league chairman Irvin Khoza announcing on Thursday that the PSL's Board of Governors had instructed its executive members to take the matter to their lawyers.
But the turf war is set to open a Pandora's box as the letter Safa sent to Zurich is expected to cast the spotlight on the PSL's compliance with corporate governance and also put the league's operations under Fifa scrutiny.
Safa's acting president, Gay Mokoena, confirmed to Sunday Times that the letter was sent to Fifa and he was adamant that the decision to partner with OUTsurance did not breach the governing body's sponsorship rules.
"We know that Fifa has received our letter and we have given them the background as much as we could as far as what is happening here [in South Africa] so that they can assist us in resolving this dispute," he said.
Mokoena, who is acting president while incumbent Danny Jordaan continues to attend to Fifa business outside of the country, warned the PSL and said they run the risk of incurring the world governing body's wrath if the league presses ahead with plans to use the legal route to resolve the dispute.
"They are running a big risk of Fifa taking some drastic action," Mokoena said.
"You know at the moment Fifa is in the mood of 'we are cleaning up and we want to clean our image so that we are not linked to corruption and so on'.
"So we are running a very high risk of Fifa taking drastic measures. I would really appeal to our special member [the PSL] not to take that route and to give the Fifa processes a chance."
Khoza told journalists this week that Safa's partnership with OUTsurance is in conflict with the rights of Nedbank (Nedbank Cup) and Absa (Absa premiership) and devalues their sponsorship of the league.
But Safa argues that if a conflict of interest exists between Absa, Nedbank and OUTsurance, then the PSL has been operating with multiple examples of the very issue they are objecting to for many years.
Safa argues that Bidvest owns and sponsors football club Wits while operating Bidvest Bank when it is in direct competition with both Absa and Nedbank.
Vodacom sponsors both Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates while the two Soweto clubs participate in the season-opening MTN8 competition every year.
And then there is the contentious issue of Lamontville Golden Arrows boss Mato Madlala, who has been PSL acting CEO for almost three years since Brand de Villiers left the post in November 2015.
Mokoena said there are several other examples that can be deemed conflict of interest if the PSL's argument is to be advanced.
"We have raised this issue that they [the PSL] already have conflict of interest as far as their sponsors are concerned," he said.
"BidVest, Nedbank together with Absa ... that is a conflict of interest.
"It is conflict of interest and we believe that we are in the right and we have applied our minds.
"If we thought that it would have created serious problems, we would have probably called them in and said 'okay let's talk about this' or we would have said an outright no [to OUTsurance]."
Mokoena said they will be guided by Fifa in the coming days with regard to the course of action they will take.
Attempts to get comment from Khoza and Madlala yesterday were unsuccessful as their phones rang unanswered.
PSL spokesperson Lux September said he could not comment on the matter and referred all questions back to Khoza and Madlala...