Kaizer Chiefs’ Covid-19 saga – what has happened so far

Kaizer Chiefs have thrown the Premier Soccer League a curveball that is likely to test the country’s professional football administrators. 

ALSO READ: PSL prosecutor Nande Becker resigns

Amakhosi went against the PSL’s rules and asked that their DStv Premiership games for the rest of December be postponed.

When they didn’t get a favourable response from the league regarding their request, they forged ahead and didn’t arrive for their game against Cape Town City which was scheduled for Saturday. 

City arrived at FNB Stadium to be greeted by locks on the gates, and they could not go inside. 

Below we look at the timeline of what we know and the flow of events that have led to this disastrous situation which brings the PSL into disrepute.

Friday, December 3:

On the morning of Friday December 3 Kaizer Chiefs posted a statement on their website announcing that they had written to the PSL to ask that their remaining games for the month be postponed. This was after a serious outbreak of Covid-19 at Naturena which resulted in 31 members of staff turning in positive results. 

Also, Soccer Laduma reported that Kaizer Chiefs had only 13 players who had not tested positive for Covid. 

Later that evening Kaizer Chiefs released another statement announcing that they would not be attending their game and that FNB Stadium would not be open. 

Saturday, December 4:

SowetanLive reports that Cape Town City chairman John Comitis says the game against Chiefs is forging ahead. Comitis is quoted as saying the matter was tabled at a PSL Exco meeting but no decision was made on it. He also revealed that the PSL had on Friday replied to Chiefs’ letter and denied their request for postponement. 

Cape Town City post on their social media pictures of the team bus outside FNB Stadium where they could not get inside as the venue was not open. The referees did their pre-match checks outside the venue. 

Sunday, December 5:

Although unrelated, news broke that PSL prosecutor Nande Becker had left his position. He confirmed that he had left the position on November 30. 

Monday, December 6:

The PSL will have another Exco meeting and are expected to make a public statement on the Kaizer Chiefs issue.