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Black Leopards chairperson David Thidiela is fighting his club’s relegation to the ABC Motsepe League after the team was kicked out of the Premier Soccer League.
Addressing the media in Johannesburg on Thursday, Thidiela revealed Leopards won’t be playing in the ABC League as they feel they were hard done by the PSL acting prematurely by withholding player registrations over a supposed Fifa ban at the start of last season.
The club were later relegated from the Motsepe Foundation Championship and subsequently had their Safa arbitration bid to replay their first four fixtures dismissed.
“I was demoted two years ago unlawfully,” Thidiela said. “The question today is: who banned Leopards and for what?
“I’m not relegated and I’m not going to play in the ABC Motsepe League.
“The case is with CAS [the international Court of Arbitration for Sport] to decide — it isn’t for the PSL to have decided already. Fifa said there is no ban for us.”
When Leopards purchased the league status of All Stars in 2023, they unknowingly assumed financial liabilities that triggered the Fifa transfer ban.
At the start of last season, the PSL withheld registration cards for the club’s new signings. This forced Leopards to play its first four matches with a severely depleted squad.
Leopards’ dispute began at Safa arbitration when advocate Hilton Epstein SC dismissed their application to replay four key fixtures and ordered them to pay legal costs.
Following the setback, Thidiela took the battle to the CAS in a bid to overturn their relegation and preserve their professional status. The matter is ongoing.
“[After that] the league gave me the [registration] cards the same day we received the letter on September 30 from Fifa. Before that, we wrote a letter to ask if we can register the young players from our academy and they [PSL legal] refused,” he said.
“And on September 30 they [Fifa] said Black Leopards are not banned — immediately the same day when I got a letter from Fifa, the league called us to say come and collect the cards.
“The ban was over after we played four games.”