Safa Western Cape chairman Tankiso Modipa says the sale of the two ABC Motsepe League clubs, Batalion FC and Ukhanya United, has not yet been approved.
“And I don’t think it will be approved,” Tankiso informed No Bones with Jones. “But we will engage the two clubs and an emergency committee meeting will then be held. Let us not make a decision beforehand. There is a lot of consultation that must still be done.
“But at that point in the (pre-season) meeting the statuses were not yet approved, it was declined. So, we are engaging both clubs and just want to finalize the details. As soon as it is finalized, I will give the full feedback if it is changing or if there is another feedback after the consultation.”
Modipa’s comments follow after it was decided at the pre-season meeting for Second Division clubs of Safa Western Cape last week in Caledon that clubs can only sell off their status after competing for two full seasons in the league.
This directive was given by Safa National to eradicate the chances of money laundering and scrupulous dealing that does not have the interest of the beautiful game at heart.
Batalion from the Cape Winelands region was in negotiations with FC Cafda to sell off their status, while the Eagle Performance Academy (EPA) was pretty confident that they would take over Ukhanya.
“Both of these clubs have serious challenges and we also have serious challenges. They only played one season and with Batalions it is the second time they won promotion and then sold off their status.
So, it is like a business to them. Hence, I told them it is like making money now – you just get promotion for the sake of selling your status.
“Tomorrow they are closing the space of a club that actually wants to be in the league because they want to make it a business. That is the message I relayed to them.
“In the meeting with Ukhanya I said there are lots of allegations of corruption and money laundering. People are cleaning their money through this league. So, we want to do a thorough investigation because last year they bought another club.
“So, we also need to look into that, but at that point and at the meeting there was nothing approved. They were declined. But we will see as we must still engage them and do our due diligence to ensure that it is in good faith,” Modipa stated.
The WC soccer boss emphasized that the matter should be concluded before the season starts early in November.
“There is quite a lot of deeper engagement that we must have with those clubs, the previous owners, the current owners and the ones that want to buy the status. And after we are satisfied ourselves, I will call a PEC meeting. Only the executive committee can approve such a decision,” Modipa concluded.
