MB. CITY PETITION PLE ON RELEGATION

MBABANE – Mbabane City are relentless in their bid to remain in the Premier League.

The outfit were supposed to go down after finishing at the basement of the charts at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, but recently wrote to the Premier League of Eswatini to confirm their intention to challenge relegation. They had told the membership during the elite football body’s annual general meeting (AGM) over three weeks ago that they intended to oppose the pronouncement to go down and recently made that official in writing.

In the letter, they told the PLE that they had a matter that was being dealt with by another structure, which is the Eswatini Football Association (EFA). They petitioned EFA early this year challenging the 14-team League, which was put in place after improvised play-offs before the start of the 2017/18 season. After the introduction of the play-offs, Mbabane Highlanders, who were supposed to go down with Manzini Sea Birds, survived.

The latter was not automatically relegated, but featured in the three-team play-offs involving Madlenya and eventual winners Vovovo.
City wants minutes of the meeting sanctioning the play-offs, among things.

Mbabane City representative in the PLE Board of Governors Bongani ‘Bhanyaza’ Mdluli said they still stood by their decision to remain in top flight football, saying their matter was still with EFA.
He expressed hope it would be resolved in the next few days, but never ruled out a possibility of running to FIFA if they were not satisfied.
“We can’t say much at this stage, but in about a week, we hope to have a clear answer,” he said.

PLE COO Pat Vilakati confirmed receipt of the letter, but said it was just an endorsement of the team’s resolution taken during the general assembly.
“In the letter City were just informing the office that they were rejecting the relegation, as their matter was at a structure above our office.
“They never ordered us to do anything regarding the start of the league,” said Vilakati.
 It is exactly 21 days before the September 14 League kick-off date, and there could be confusion if action gets underway without City’s status without being cleared.
An initial draft Premier League fixture released during the AGM had excluded Mbabane City. The National First Division League draft schedule has not been released partly because it has taken forever to decide the four teams that have won promotion from the regions.
EFA Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe sounded surprised that the matter was still pending with his office, but referred comments to CEO Frederick Mngomezulu, whose phone rang unanswered.

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