WHY SEKGOSESE FOOTBALL CUP 2021 WAS CALLED OFF

By Joey Wa Rabapane |30 December 2021 | 14h30

Ga-Raphahlelo | Sekgosese Football Cup Executive Committee has on Wednesday decided to call off the tournament following a squabble about a missing team list.

All started well on Tuesday when teams that made it to quarter finals were facing each other to proceed to semi-finals however the last game on the day between Matsena Giant Killers and Mamaila Super Silence only lasted for first half and that was it.

“On the 28th of December 2021, the quarterfinal game between Matsena Giant Killers and Mamaila Super Silence was stopped at half-time whilst Matsena Giant Killers was leading 1 – 0”, reads the media statement released by the Sekgosese Football Cup Executive Committee.

The statement further reads, “Sekgosese Football Cup administrators had noticed that two (2) of Mamaila Super Silence players on the day’s team sheet and starting eleven (11) were not on Mamaila Super Silence’ team list and then advised Mamaila Super Silence to take them off as they were prohibited to play according to Sekgosese Football Cup 2021 Rules. Mamaila Super Silence promptly took off the two players in question. In turn, Mamaila Super Silence requested to see the original team list for Matsena Giant Killers”.

Therefore, according to media statement sent to Sekgosese Insider by the Organizing Committee, Sekgosese Football Cup administrators unfortunately had misplaced the team list and it could not be located.

“Then, Mamaila Super Silence refused to continue with the second half of the game without Matsena Giant Killers’ team list”, further reads the statement.

After much deliberation by Sekgosese Football Cup administrators, a decision was then taken that the game has to be completed with the remaining 45 minutes the following day. Therefore Mamaila Super Silence allegedly refused to accept the administrator’s decision and therefore were disqualified and Matsena Giant Killers were to proceed to the semi-finals.

“As Mamaila Super Silence, we felt it was a planned situation to give Matsena Giant Killers a breakthrough to the next round of the tournament at our expense. Matsena [Giant Killers] was favoured by the tournament organisers it seemed. We [Mamaila and Matsena] were both wrong by fielding players who were not on the team list while Matsena didn’t have a team list at all”, said Coach and Co-Founder of Mamaila Super Silence FC, Thabiso Rakgakole.

He further told Sekgosese Insider that the solution should have been that they resubmit team lists with their ‘twin players’ added and Matsena Giant Killers add the goal scorer who was alleged not to be on the team list.

“However, this didn’t sit well with the organisers as they pushed for our dismissal and giving Matsena Giant Killers a green light to the next round. So we stopped the tournament based on the organizer’s unwillingness to find a solution”, added Rakgakole.

Matsena Giant Killers rubbished the allegations made against them.

“Mamaila Super Silence didn’t register the twins nonetheless we didn’t mind until they started a protest by saying Thabo “Messi” Theka was their player. We then decided to remove him as he was on the bench. We then requested to see if the twins were on the list as well and found out that they are not”, Matsena Giant Killers coach, Thabang Sekoba [Hlongwane] told Sekgosese Insider.

He further rubbished the allegations that the goal scorer, Mahlatse Sekgobela was not on the team list.

“On the 29th of December 2021, before the semi-finals could proceed, officials and players of Mamaila Super Silence put their motor vehicles on the field of play to prevent the semi-finals from going ahead and threatened the organizers with violence. For safety of the teams, fans and all stakeholders and organizers, we saw it fit to call-off the games”, reads the media statement issued on behalf of Sekgosese Football Cup Executive Committee.

In contrary to what the statement says, Rakgakole of Mamaila Super Silence told Sekgosese Insider journalist that: “No, we didn’t park our cars in the field of play, it was probably people who were against the injustices done to us by the organizers. We are not violent people hence we even went to Sekgosese Police Station to write an affidavit about what has happened only to find out that the organizers didn’t report this tournament to the police station. If we were violent, we wouldn’t have taken that route. Remember that we even proposed to the organizers that let the game start from 25 minutes with Matsena Giant Killers leading 1-0, they refused. We were ready to play.”

The Executive Committee has communicated the way forward to the remaining teams in the tournament and further apologised to the teams, fans, stakeholders and their partners.