Africa-Press – Eswatini. When two bulls fight, the greatest sufferer is the grass.
The Eswatini Football Association (EFA) and Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) tug-of-war has got all football stakeholders affected one way or the other.
Premier League clubs reported to venues for their MTN matches yesterday afternoon across four different stadiums but games were called off because there were no match officials.
EFA and the PLE are at loggerheads over the release of players to the national team, Sihlangu, and the completion of the remaining two MTN Premier League games. As it is, EFA is winning the fight after getting their wish as players were not released back to their clubs for yesterday’s games, instead skipping to neighbouring Mozambique for friendly matches.
The PLE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Makhanya released a correspondence that games affecting the top four clubs; Royal Leopard, Mbabane Highlanders, Mbabane Swallows and Young Buffaloes have were yesterday morning, while the rest of the games were expected to continue as scheduled.
“The PLE office is continuing to engage with EFA in respect to their complying with Annex 1 of the ‘Release of players to association teams’ under Article 1 principles, wherein PLE Clubs are obliged to release players to the National Team on a mandatory basis four days (including the day of the match) for matches on dates in the coordinated international calendar,” Makhanya said in a statement to all clubs yesterday morning.
Subsequently, clubs not affected reported to playing venues but match officials did not show up.
Match officials are scheduled by the Referees Committee (RC), a subcommittee of EFA.
The RC Chairman, Sipho Kunene, politely refused to comment when asked why referees did not attend the scheduled matches.
“The best people to talk to will be EFA as the custodians of the games and me, personally as the chairman of the RC cannot comment on the matter,” Kunene said.
Handled
EFA Communications and Marketing Officer Muzi Radebe said, “Referees’ matters are handled by the Referees Committee, which is an independent body within the organisation.
“Their matters do not fall within the secretariat portfolio,” he said.
Meanwhile, the senior football national team Sihlangu is currently in Mozambique for friendly matches in that country in readiness for the upcoming 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier games against Togo and Burkina Faso on June 3 and June 7, respectively.
The PLE is under pressure to finish the MTN Premier League before May 30, which is the deadline to submit the country’s representatives in the CAF inter-club competitions.
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