Africa-Press – Eswatini. Football was once again brought into disarray after Tambuti failed to honour their match against Nsingizini Hotspurs yesterday at King Sobhuza II Stadium.
This led to the abandonment of the match by match commissioner Sipho Kunene as the Lubombo-based side were a no-show despite the fixture having been issued by the Premier League of Eswatini.
The initial fixture was abandoned due to floodlights failure at the Somhlolo National Stadium on October 25.
Nsingizini warmed up at the venue until Kunene called off the match.
Tambuti now face possible charges and fines if they will be found guilty for causing the abandonment of the match by the Eswatini Football Association Disciplinary Committee.
This is according to article 4(21) of the 2022/23 MTN Premier League rules and regulations which states that sanctions shall be imposed to the club that will be found guilty for causing the abandonment of a match.
‘Any match which is not played, abandoned or any withdrawal – except in cases of force majeure recognised by EFA – may lead to the imposition of sanctions against the relevant club(s) by the Eswatini Football Association DC in accordance with the EFA disciplinary code or any other applicable or equivalent code and above those provided for in these regulations,’ the article reads.
Kunene declined to comment and referred queries to the PLE Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Makhanya.
“The match has been called off, please talk to the PLE CEO for further comment,” he said, briefly.
Meanwhile, Makhanya said they would handle the matter in accordance with the league’s rules and regulations.
“The PLE and all clubs are obligated to follow the rules and regulations. The responsibility of the league is to issue out a fixture in accordance with the rules.
The responsibility of each Premier League club is to honour the fixture in line with the rules. We will await the match officials reports on what transpired and then act in accordance with the rules,” he said.
Tambuti Director Rudolph Matsenjwa, who is also a PLE executive committee member, said they had informed the PLE about their decision of not honouring the match.
“We did inform the PLE that we will not honour the match through correspondences which we have been constantly sending to the office since the initial match was abandoned by power failure at Somhlolo National Stadium. We feel that we have not been treated fairly on this issue as the office was not keen to listen to our side of the story.
“We believe the PLE should have not replayed the match without the approval of the EFA DC since the match had been called off after 15 minutes played and its fate should have been decided by the DC in accordance with Article 4(3 ) of the league rules.
“We feel that we are victimised by the PLE on the matter as we have been in constant communication with them and they refused to listen to our side of the story,” said a clearly disappointed Matsenjwa.
Tambuti wrote three letters to the PLE dated November 24, 28 and 29, which are in possession of this publication.
Article 4(3) states that a club requesting a change of fixture can submit its request before the rescheduled fixture.
‘Should any club wish to request a change to a fixture, such request must be submitted at least three days before the schedule start of the match. Fixtures will only be amended in extreme circumstances, at the discretion of the PLE,’ reads the article cited by Matsenjwa.
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