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Ndoro saga far from over

Tenadi Ndoro
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The Tendai Ndoro saga is far from over. This, as the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday dismissed the application by Ajax Cape Town to allow striker Tendai Ndoro to play in the club’s remaining matches this season.

The court upheld to decision taken by the arbitration that the Zimbabwean forward is still ineligible to play.

In his judgment, Judge David Unterhalter upheld the decision that Ndoro is not eligible to play for his club.

This goes against the decision made by the Premier Soccer League’s dispute resolution chamber which cleared Ndoro to play on January 31.

But the PSL appealed against the decision and arbitrator Nassir Cassim ruled that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) did not have jurisdiction on the matter and referred it to FIFA’s Player’s Status Committee.

FIFA in turn referred the matter back to the PSL and the South African Football Association (SAFA).

PSL Legal Representative Dennis Sibuyi says: “It simply means that the application that was brought by Ajax Cape Town to review and set aside the arbitrator’s ruling has been dismissed so the review was not successful. Where does that put us now meaning that the player is still not eligible to play? Well that point has not yet been decided it’s a question of merits still has to be dealt with.”

According to the arbitrator, as stipulated in rule 5-point-3 of FIFA, Ndoro cannot play for three teams in one season. But the matter can still be referred for arbitration.

“From here it depends where to go it could be that FIFA comes back makes a ruling or the parties agree to report the matter to Cassim or to another arbitrator to rule as to whether Ndoro can play or not. Yes on the merits possibly if the parties agree that should refer it to arbitration but ideally FIFA should decide the matter,” adds Sibuyi.

It is still not clear what is going to happen to the points Ajax accumulated with Ndoro in the field.

Ajax won three games and drew one when the Zimbabwean played this season.

The PSL still hopes the issue will not affect the pending promotion/relegation play-off’s that start on the April 16.

“Yes we will try and expedite the matter. I can’t discuss the details now but the idea is that we should try and get the issue of the merits as to whether he can play or not taking into account the pending protests,” says Sibuyi.

It is also still not clear whether Ajax will be docked the 10 points in question or whether those points will be forfeited by the club and given to the sides who protested Ndoro’s eligibility.

 

 

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