Tankiso Modipa, president of the Safa Western Cape, reiterated that he is not in a position to comment on the ABC Motsepe League fixture debacle between Hout Bay United Football Club (HBUFC) and Maties FC until anything official is reported to the region by the respective clubs.
This follows the drama and shambolic scenes that played out at Malta Park over the weekend where the Second Division match between the Hout Bay-based team were to host the visitors from the Cape Winelands.
“Until such time I get a report on the matter formally from either the clubs, coordinator or competition committee, I can’t comment at all,” Modipa told No Bones with Jones.
This fixture was not officially scheduled for last weekend but rather a fourth-round clash that was outstanding due to Maties FC’s cup commitments whereby the league prescribed that the two clubs needed to make arrangements amongst each other to ensure the fixture gets honoured.
Modipa indicated that the date and venue for the outstanding game was left up to the discretion of the two clubs involved.
Both the HBUFC and the Maties could not come to a compromise leading to what could and should have been avoidable if only better communicated. This anecdote is quite comical in today’s technological age.
The Maties FC pitched on Saturday for this particular clash while the HBUFC didn’t not show up at all..
And when the latter arrived the following day at the same venue with the match officials in attendance, the Maties were nowhere to be seen as they took a “moral stance” and maintained that they had only followed the rules.
According to a source at the Maties FC everything was cast in stone after their initial agreement. with the coastal outfit.
“We agreed on Wednesday (leading up to the weekend) that the game will be played on Saturday,” explained the source. “The following day they (HBUFC) called to say that the game would be moved to Sunday which we opposed because the traveling arrangements had already been made and we could not change it as our traveling gets done through the university and they arrange these logistics. So, we couldn’t change the arrangements.”
Meanwhile, the HBUFC’s Dali Fekenisi said: “We wrote a letter to Safa WC to notify them of the date and venue” Fekenisi referred to the outstanding fixture after challenges of their own.
“We were struggling to find a venue because the LFA came back to us late, giving us permission to use our facility,” Fekenisi said to No Bones with Jones. “Remember, we played at Malta Park because of our relationship with Cape Town City Football Club (CTCFC), so, the cricket people lodged a complaint with the City of Cape Town that CTCFC is violating the lease agreement by letting other people use the facility.
“We then talked to UCT for Kopano Astro, and they informed us their facility does not have water and ablution facilities. Then we told them we would bring water. They sent us a quote, and when we were about to pay, they came back and said they were not allowed to rent it to an outside party without water.
“You must remember, we have to inform Safa 72 hours in advance of the change of venue. Then we talked to Ocean View, and they gave us available slots to choose from because they also had their program.
“The only suitable time was Sunday at 12:30. We communicated that to Safa, and they were informed. Safa told them they have to honour the game and it will not be rescheduled again,” Fekenisi concluded.
