Times Of Swaziland: ‘BIRDS’ POSTPONEMENT PLEA DENIED

‘BIRDS’ POSTPONEMENT PLEA DENIED
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Machawe Fakudze on 21/11/2024 08:00:00


MBABANE – Rejected!
This is the story of Mbabane Swallows’ plea to postpone their Week seven MTN
Premier League match against Rangers FC. The red and white capital city giants
will be visiting ‘Bolovo’, as the Shiselweni-based side is affectionately
known in local football circles. The match has been penned for the King Sobhuza
II Memorial Stadium on Sunday and is expected to kick-off at 2:30pm. Speaking on
national radio, the Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services (EBIS), the
Caleb Ngwenya-coached side’s Legal Advisor Welile Mabuza, revealed that they
had written to the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) requesting a postponement of
the game.
The long-serving Swallows official revealed that they were expecting to
officially handover the team back to Princess Lungile yesterday, but that event
was now postponed as the late Umkhonto KaShaka Boss Victor Gamedze’s wife was
reportedly out of the country.“As the management committee has released a
statement that they want to return the team back to her and we made an
appointment to see her with representatives from both sides as well as that for
the players. The meeting was confirmed for 1pm today (yesterday),” Mabuza
said.
He also highlighted that they then received a correspondence that the princess
had an emergency to attend to in Johannesburg and is expected to return on
Sunday.
Handover
“As I have highlighted that we were expecting to do the handover today
(yesterday) to appoint those to lead the team into the next game, but it became
clear that if she will return on Sunday, a vacuum was created and we were
proactive and wrote to the PLE requesting that the Rangers match be
postponed,” he added. Mabuza said the reason for the postponement is due to
the fact that the players are not training and a new management is expected to
take office. The PLE Acting Football Manager, Banele Masondo, confirmed that
they received the Kwakhe Thwala-captained side’s request to postpone the
games. “We didn’t grant them the request as it was not within the stipulated
seven days of changing fixtures, as per the rules,” Masondo said.
Masondo also said they could not give Swallows their wish as the match was for
Rangers, as they are the host in this game. According to the 2024/25 MTN Premier
League Rules and Regulations, Article 4.3 states that should any club wish to
request a change to a fixture, such request must be submitted at least seven
days before the scheduled start of the match. Fixtures will only be amended in
extreme circumstances at the discretion of the PLE.It is worth noting that the
reigning MTN Premier League champions players had taken the team to the
Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC), on allegations that
they were not paid their monthly salaries.