Cafda FC owner Ashley October has hit a proverbial rock and pulled out of the purchase of Batalions FC from the Cape Winelands as there is too much (financial) risk involved.
No bones with Jones can confirm that this sale was stopped by the South African Football Association following an appeal from October via his lawyers.
The sad reality for October and his management is that Cafda FC will not feature in the ABC Motsepe League season – this after they recruited Theo Hempe as their head coach who subsequently assembled a squad and even held pre-season trials for a couple of weeks already.
It is now safe to say that the Cafda/Batalions-saga has come to a very unfortunate end.
Meanwhile, No bones with Jones has been informed that Zizwe United, who are desperate to sell their Second Division status, are no longer striking a deal with Turfloop FC, but rather with Inter Africa Football Academy which is based in Kenilworth.
Our website recently reported that the former Motsepe champion was in the process of selling off its status to the Polokwane-owned Turfloop, but this sale fell through.
It has now come to light that a new partnership with the Inter Africa Academy is on the cards and these two entities are in negotiations looking to conclude a deal by Thursday.
Should this materialize then the Academy will still have to play under Zizwe’s banner this season before they can activate the name change – it also remains to be seen what the academy will be called.
“That is one of the main discussion points at the moment,” said a source. “But that doesn’t really matter in the bigger scheme of things as long as we have the input and we are in charge and in control of most of the things, that is the key.
“If we don’t get that sorted then why would we need to go into a partnership if we can’t get control of most of the issues?” the source added.
Our website has been informed that Inter Africa’s reasoning behind buying the franchise is to ensure there is an avenue for the young talent in Cape Town to realize their dreams and ambitions of becoming a professional footballer and to ensure that the young talent does not go to waste or fall prey to the evils of society.
“We will merge some of the talents in our academy with the six or so players that Zizwe has registered already and that are still on their books,” the source concluded.
Zizwe was humiliated on Sunday when they lost 0-11 to Ubuntu FC during a Nedbank Cup Round of 16 in Nyanga.
This is understandable as they did what was needed to honour the fixture with players from their LFA ranks rather than getting slapped with a financial penalty.
