RYGATE LFA president Abdul Doeltjies Tajoodien emphatically confirmed that they withdrew their sanction of the Greensmile Foundation tournament until all the “unanswered questions” are solved.
Tajoodien’s decisive action follows the controversy which played out during the Foundation’s tour to Turkey that went horribly wrong.
The Rygate LFA came to Greensmile’s aid last year when it hosted their annual u.21 football tournament – and there were agreements in place that it will do so again this year.
This foundation is co-owned by former Springboks players such as Ashwin Willemse and Breyton Paulse.
Willemse had in turn appointed Fadiel Gasant as the Foundation’s CEO.
Tajoodien is of the opinion that Gasant’s integrity, compassion and respect for the game after he left four members of the group of 64 behind ‘enemy lines’?
Nasar Jones and son, Nasrud-deen (17), Zubair Khan (14) and Abdul Baasit Taylor (21), had to remain in Istanbul as their tickets were booked under Gasant’s name but the penalties on the tickets were never paid. This was only paid after the family of the four members reported the matter to the police.
Gasant had in turn already left with a previous group. Needless to say it took him a week for sanity to prevail after he finally bought the tickets last Friday after the group left SA for Turkey on July 2nd.
Jones and his son both play their club soccer for Jordan Callies from the Rygate Union while Khan and Taylor are registered Milano United from the Cape Town Tygerberg LF.
According to Tajoodien they will send the correspondence on Tuesday to Safa Cape Town about their decision.
“Our members were left in a foreign and there are unanswered questions and we need to get all those answers,” Tajoodien stated.
“We have also been reliably informed that Greensmile will send a letter to D&G (Orient) and a letter will be sent to the LFA to explain certain things. Up until we receive the letter with explanations to all the unanswered, we shall not show our support.
“Therefore we take the position to withdraw our sanction for the tournament. We will outline below mentioned reasons to the region as to why they should also withdraw their sanction.
1.Greensmiles is not a member of Safa Cpt; minors left behind by Greensmiles Foundation organization in foreign country; the issue of lies about the trip to Istanbul and friendlies played and tournament false pretences; tour group was told of 5-star accommodation also untrue and some other reasons that we would communicate to Safa CT,” Tajoodien concluded.
Meanwhile, Jones has exclusively opened up to our website regarding his “five days of hell” after he was locked up for a week in two different prisons in Istanbul – the first in Ankara, a two hour drive from Istanbul followed by a long ten hour drive to the second jail in Samsung.
“Honestly speaking, I think it’s my faith and love for my family that kept me going,” said Jones.
“I saw it as a test, you know. And it was definitely one. Being locked up for 24 hours without leaving the cell is no joke. We were fed twice a day but who has an appetite if you don’t know what is going on or if you will ever see your loved ones.
“I was alo confused when they scratched wrote Chad on my documents
“More than a 100 of us locked up but I never really felt threatened. It is just that the uncertainty was making me more anxious.
2 Responses
What a great story,thank You Siraj!
Thanks, Lauren!