Kaizer Chiefs PSL

Chiefs players in a huddle. Photo: Twitter @KaizerChiefs

‘Disappointed’ Chiefs hit back at PSL as they opt to appeal!

Kaizer Chiefs have stated they were ‘taken aback’ by the lack of urgency from the PSL to address the Covid-19 outbreak in their camp.

Kaizer Chiefs PSL

Chiefs players in a huddle. Photo: Twitter @KaizerChiefs

Kaizer Chiefs have been anxiously waiting on a decision from the Premier Soccer League after they missed two matches this month.

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Chiefs took an emergency decision to temporarily close the club’s headquarters in Naturena in the wake of a severe Covid-19 outbreak that affected more than 35 employees as it swept through the camp in early December.

As a result, Chiefs were unable to fulfil their fixtures against Cape Town City and Golden Arrows, but were eventually able to put a team together to play Sekhukhune United at the FNB Stadium recently.

The league hadn’t officially commented on Chiefs’ initial request for all their DStv Premiership fixtures in December to be postponed, while there’d been no word over whether the two missed matches would be re-scheduled.

Eventually, the PSL recently confirmed that because Chiefs could not prove that there were “exceptional circumstances” for to have matches postponed approved, that request was declined.

The PSL will next host a press conference on 5 January 2022 to address the saga, and will not make any further comment until then.

Yet, Chiefs have responded quickly to state that there were legitimate medical reasons for their request, hinting that these certainly should be regarded as “exceptional circumstances”.

“Initially, at our first time of writing to the league, we had 31 positive cases, which included a majority of players as well as members of the technical team. As a double consequence of the close contact nature of our environment and the increased levels in contagiousness of the Omicron variant, these numbers increased steadily in the next week. Additional rounds of testing revealed a rise to 36, followed by 48 and then 52 positive diagnoses from the subsequent two weeks’ round of testing.

“This increase in numbers indicates that our decision to close our headquarters was a justified and prudent attempt to protect even more people both within and outside our camp from being affected, and, importantly, fell within the established Department of Health protocols for containing an outbreak of Covid.”

Chiefs took a subtle dig at PSL due to the fact the League didn’t have a Chief Medical Officer at the time

“Kaizer Chiefs is disappointed and taken aback by the contrasting lack of urgency from the PSL after having taken almost three weeks to address the matter. The reason might be that the League did not have a Chief Medical Officer who could have advised those dealing with the issue from an NICD and Department of Health protocols perspective.

“The Chief Medical Officer was appointed last week as a result of our submission on the matter of the Covid outbreak. This is key in the times we live in.”

The Chiefs’ statement also referenced the severity of Omicron and how the English Premier League have also had to postpone fixtures.

“Chiefs would not have benefited from the postponement in any way as it would have caused unnecessary fixture congestion later in the season for the Club.

“We are studying the feedback and will engage our legal department with the view of appealing this unjustifiable decision through the football mother body, the South African Football Association or the Dispute Resolution Committee.”

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