Sekhukhune challenged the PSL decision not to award them the three points that were taken from Polokwane City FC following the latter's failure to have the required number of Under 23 players in the matchday squad.
The call that moved them to the summit of the GladAfrica Championship, which has since been appealed by Royal AM and subsequently suspended the promotion/relegation play-offs opened the door for others.
Sporting jumped onto the bandwagon and complained about Jomo Cosmos doing the same in their match against them but Thobela says he understands why the judge had to rule against them.
"The reason we took our matter up ourselves it's because of the two contradicting decisions," he tells snl24.com/kickoff. "Our view was that the decision of Sekhukhune was the correct one.
"And in that, we've been vindicated you see. I don't know why the judge didn't want to entertain our matter but we believe that the judge didn't want to entertain matters of football because all the decisions remained as they were before the cases were taken to court.
"So we are happy for Sekhukhune, we've got nothing to say except to congratulate them and prepare ourselves for next season. Our case and the case of Polokwane City were dismissed. I accept the decision and congratulate Sekhukhune.
"You know all the time it's better to die standing than to die on your knees. We've tried our best we failed to fight in the field, we went to court we failed in court...So we died standing."