Kaizer Chiefs found guilty, sentenced by PSL DC

Premier Soccer League prosecutor Zola Majavu has reached his final verdict on Kaizer Chiefs' non-fulfillment of fixtures in December 2021.

Chiefs appeared before the league’s Disciplinary Committee on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to the charges of "misconduct" after they failed to turn up for games against Cape Town City and Golden Arrows.

Chiefs had initially argued that they could not raise a competitive team after their squad was hit by a Covid-19 outbreak in December.

“I can confirm that earlier this morning Kaizer Chiefs Football Club appeared before the PSL DC to answer to charges of misconduct in relation to their non-fulfilment of the two fixtures in December amid Covid-19,” Majavu announced in a press statement.

“Those were in relation to Cape Town City, as well as Lamontville Golden Arrows FC. That matter was put on hold, pending the finalisation of an arbitration, which Kaizer Chiefs had to refer to.

“Upon the arbitrator ruling in their favour, I discontinued the prosecution. Later, the league executive committee took that decision on review, and they succeeded last week on the 10th of May, therefore paving the way for me to proceed with the misconduct charges.

“That particular matter was then enrolled for hearing for today, and I am pleased to inform you that the matter was indeed duly finalised on the following basis.”

The league then accepted Amakhosi’s guilty plea and the club was slapped with a R200,000 fine suspended in half for a full year provided they do not commit a similar offence within that period.

“Kaizer Chiefs Football Club pleaded guilty, and I accepted their plea which resulted in the DC returning a guilty verdict.

“We immediately proceeded to make submissions with regard to aggravation and mitigation of sentence whereafter the PSL DC ruled as follows with regards to sanction:

“Kaizer Chiefs Football Club was fined an amount of R200,000, of which 50 percent is suspended for a period of 12 months on condition that during the period of suspension, they are not found guilty of the same offence again. In fact, they have to pay R100,000

“They were further ordered to pay the cost of the sittings, which costs are to be administratively computed by the league and once so finalised, they will be on forwarded to Kaizer Chiefs for onward payment.”

The matches against City and Arrows were, however, later on rescheduled and played in April with Chiefs first losing 2-1 to Abafana Bes’thende, before again suffering a 2-1 defeat to the Citizens at home.