The shoe is now on Manzini Wanderers’ foot
MBABANE (20 April 2023): Sport is a very lovely thing. It creates joy, builds friendships and inspires respect of competitors and rivals. But sport politics is not nice. It is necessary to make sport happen. things Now the shoe is on the other foot. Manzini Wanderers who have been on the receiving end of hardship since winter 2024, are now on the aggressive against the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) and its Premier League of Eswatini (PLE).
Despite winning a series of court cases since 2024 to compel the PLE to reinstate them in the league, Wanderers have spent almost a whole year out in the cold. But now, Wanderers are playing hardball. Last week they returned to court, this time, to request for an order for the arrest and jailing of recalcitrant PLE leaders, for contempt of court. The PLE asked for a postponement of the hearing to enjoin the EFA CEO and Chairman in the case. The court awarded Wanderers wasted costs, amounting to almost E39,000.
Signalling that they are no longer in the mood for games, Wanderers, immediately secured the court order for costs, and promptly instructed a Deputy Sheriff to urgently collect the debt. Even if they were expecting it, the Sheriff’s appearance with an attachment order was rather sudden, panicking PLE officials to flee with assets targeted for attachment. By Wednesday 16th April, the PLE was ready with the cash and saved their assets from attachment.
When the case resumed in court, the PLE were ready for a plea bargain. They want to settle the matter out of court by seeking an amicable accommodation with the less than pleased Manzini side. But the PLE are not the boss to make that decision. The EFA is, and the EFA legal advisors took the view that before they can agree to settle out of court, they need approval of their principals, the EFA Assembly of clubs.
Unless the EFA pulls a rabbit from their hat, they need to walk on eggs, with Wanderers seemingly holding all the cards. As it is, the nation’s football administrators appears caught in a very tight spot. It is common cause within football circles that the Africa soccer mother body CAF takes a dim view of involvement of court processes in resolving football issues. If anyone expected them to salvage the situation, they were wrong. Media reports suggests that CAF in Cairo prefers that soccer matters be resolved internally first.
How did we get here?
The Weslians who were teetering dangerously into relegation latched onto a protest against rival bottom of the log Denver Sundowns who fielded a defaulter. The League disagreed, and dismissed Wanderers’ claim. With nothing to lose, the Weslians took their issue to the High Court, which agreed that Denver Sundowns did indeed field a defaulter, and that Wanderers who were technically already relegated to the MTN First Division, should be reinstated to the Premeir League.
The court decision stung Moneni Pirates who had benefitted by escaping relegation at Wanderers’ expense, and risked everything if Wanderers prospered, appealed to the Supreme Court. This dragged the matter for the next 4 months during which Wanderers were kicking their heels on the side-lines without the chance to play.
When the Supreme Court did meet, it dismissed the Pirates appeal with costs; but considering the advanced stage of the League, resolved that Pirates should be left unharmed to continue playing in the MTN Premier League.
If the spectacle of a Deputy Sheriff in a high speed chase after PLE officials fleeing with attachable assets is anything to go by, more of similar entertainment is in the making, especially if Wanderers take the view that they have been messed around, and that enough is enough.
The Weslians who have been out in the cold since the end of the 2024 MTN Premier League season last winder, could have been returned to an expanded MTN League as the 17th team. It would have been very untidy and uncomfortable, but saved PLE from a lot of problems.
Earlier in the year, Wanderers appealed to be included in the lucrative Ingwenyama Cup. They lost that bid, because soccer administrators pointed out that Wanderers was not in the PLE. The Supreme Court ruling suggests that they were. Despite that, the PLE continued to keep the door shut?
Indications are that Manzini Wanderers’ accountants have been sharpening their pencils and calculating where and how much to cut their pound of flesh from the PLE and EFA. Anticipating there might be hell to pay in wasted costs of maintaining a club that has been kept from playing; of accommodation of players; of salaries; of pain in the inability to play in the MTN League and of watching the Ngwenyama Cup from the sidelines may not be unreasonable.
The PLE only implements decisions of its mother-body, the assembly of all soccer teams represented in both divisions of the Premier League. Together, they form the highest decision-making level for Eswatini soccer. This assembly must meet, rather urgently. They must endorse the decision whether or not to enter into a negotiated settlement with Wanderers, one of their members; or, let the principals in the PLE and EFA who are presently in court, continue to fry.
Should they decide to settle out of court, their next challenge will be what and how much Wanderers will see reasonable compensation for their year-long troubles.
Between now and when this particular matter is resolved, any car that enters the parking lot at Sigwaca House will look suspiciously like that of a Deputy Sheriff.
Jm/today/20.4.2025
