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Black Leopards boss Thidiela faces life ban over ref insult

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Leopards boss David Thidiela
Leopards boss David Thidiela

Whispers in local football circles are that Black Leopards boss David Thidiela’s fate has been decided and it is speculated that he will be slapped with a life ban from football.

The embattled administrator appeared before the PSL disciplinary committee last Tuesday after he insulted referee Victor Hlungwani by using tribal references against him after Leopards played a league game against Bloemfontein Celtic in September.

“The matter was argued and the disciplinary committee has reserved judgment,” PSL prosecutor Nande Becker told City Press.

Judgment was set to be handed down next month, he added.

Apparently Thidiela, who has been on “precautionary suspension” from PSL’s executive committee for two months, caught wind of his looming long-term ban, hence his launch of a scathing attack on PSL chair Irvin Khoza in a letter last week.

In the letter – addressed to Safa’s acting chief executive, Russell Paul – Thidiela asked Safa and Fifa to institute a commission of inquiry into “the extent to which the PSL is captured by the current PSL chair or a few who surround or are appointed by him”.

Thidiela went on to claim that even the PSL disciplinary committee was “manipulated”.

His vitriol prompted the National Soccer League (NSL), under which the PSL trades, to call an urgent board of governors meeting at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park on Wednesday.

The board, which is made up of all 16 Absa Premiership clubs and the NFD’s 16 clubs, is the highest NSL decision-making body.

After the meeting, it issued a media statement, part of which read: “The board has noted the utterances of Mr David Thidiela, impugning the integrity of the board, the executive committee and the chair of the league, Dr Irvin Khoza.”

The PSL’s acting chief executive, Mato Madlala, said there was nothing more that the board would do beyond issuing this public statement.

“It is for our judicial structures to decide if there is any further action to be taken. The board does not have any powers to charge anyone,” she told City Press.

Talk is that Khoza is planning to fight back and is even looking at laying a charge of defamation against Thidiela.

One board member told City Press that Khoza had told those attending Wednesday’s meeting that he also had files on Thidiela.

In his December 6 letter, Thidiela wrote: “The current PSL chairperson is so powerful – to the extent that they are capable of deciding the fate of individuals, clubs, some PSL officials, match officials and, consequently, the results of a match. Therefore, only through the envisaged commission of inquiry and the assistance from men and women who are prepared to lay down their lives in the interest of the PSL, will the truth come out and prevail.”

However, the flip side is that his letter might just have handed Safa the leverage to finally “deal with Khoza”, given the fraught relationship between the mother body and its special member, the PSL.

Other observers with knowledge of the local game’s politics feel that should there be a commission of inquiry, they say this would open a Pandora’s box that would shake the local game to its core.

Paul said Safa’s legal and constitutional affairs committee, as well as its ethics and integrity committee, were busy reviewing Thidiela’s letter and “will revert in due course”.

And, to add spice to the Thidiela-Khoza feud, their respective clubs – Leopards and Orlando Pirates – have been pitted to play against each other in the Nedbank Cup round of 32, which was drawn on Thursday.

– Additional reporting by Daniel Mothowagae

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