Kjetil Siem
Siem
Posted: 2010-04-11 09:53
Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kjetil Siem has expressed his gratitude to Ajax Cape Town for not causing problems for the League before last night's Telkom Knockout Cup Final.
The Urban Warriors, who lost 2-1 to Kaizer Chiefs at the Absa Stadium in Durban, could have, according to Siem, exploited a "loophole" in the agreement between the PSL and the South African Football Association (Safa) to use their midfielder Thulani Serero in last night's match. The agreement between the PSL and Safa was that the Bafana Bafana players who were in camp in Brazil were not eligible to play in the Telkom Knockout, let alone the Final.
However, the agreement apparently didn't make provision for players who are dropped for the Germany camp. Serero has been dropped from the squad travelling to Germany on Monday and Ajax, according to their CEO George Comitis, says the team could have challenged the matter legally and could have gone ahead and used Serero. Siem, aware of the loophole, says Ajax were professional in the matter.
"The situation is that all the players who were in Brazil could play in the Final, especially the one from Ajax Cape Town (Serero) who will be left behind when Bafana travels to Germany and that situation created a few discussions in the executive and also with Ajax Cape Town. Legally, they were close to the right to play him," Siem explains.
"According to our rules, it is very difficult that we can say to teams that 'don't play a specific player'. But in the spirit of the agreement between the PSL and Safa, it was not fair that they could bring on that player. Luckily for me and the PSL is that Ajax respected that fact. I'm very, very grateful that they did not use that player. You can call it a loophole in the agreement that was created by the way the final fixture was structured which could have caused some friction, but I'm very grateful to Ajax," he says.
Serero, though, and others that have been dropped from the squad travelling to Germany will be available for the Nedbank Cup. The others include Tlou Segolela of Bloemfontein Celtic and Thulasizwe Mbuyane of Orlando Pirates, who are now free to play for their teams, according to Siem.
"It is only fair that those players who are now left behind can play in the Nedbank Cup," he says.
: 2010-04-11 16:22
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