Venda Football Academy FC (VFA) can relax again, with the sword of a disciplinary hearing no longer hanging over the team. This after Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila FC (TTM) had withdrawn the complaint they had filed against them.
TTM had been relegated to the ABC Motsepe League after the team finished their league programme in one of the last two positions on the log standings. TTM's relegation was confirmed when they lost 1-2 to Hungry Lions FC at the Dr Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein two weeks ago.
In a final attempt to retain their Motsepe Foundation Championship franchise, TTM decided to file a complaint with the league against Venda Football Academy (VFA). In the complaint documents that TTM filed with the league last week, they were alleging that one of the players of VFA, namely Athini Jodwana, was not properly registered with the club. They went further to say that Jodwana had featured in seven games at VFA, despite the fact that he was a defaulter.
Upon receipt of the complaint from TTM, the Premier Soccer League decided to formulate charges against VFA. The matter was laid down for hearing on Tuesday afternoon this week. According to the charge sheet, of which this publication has a copy, VFA were to give answers to the charge of registering a player (Jodwana) improperly.
TTM were alleging that VFA had used a transfer letter from Cape Town All Stars when they registered the player instead of the club he had last played for, Nyanga Zizwe United. According to the information at our disposal, the legal representatives from the two clubs had decided to meet and share some information outside the chambers. After the two parties' bilateral meeting, the TTM legal team felt that their chances of winning the case were slim. Against that background, they decided to tell the league's prosecutor that they were withdrawing their complaint.
The chairman of VFA, Mr Itani Munzhelele, said that he had not felt any reason to press the panic button as he had always known that they had followed all the processes when they had registered the player.