Teams close to the Royal AM saga must tread carefully

The matches are coming thick and fast in the local top-flight, and the pretenders are slowly but surely being separated from the real challengers.

But while that’s keeping football fans on the edge of their seats, with every passing game leaving a talking point, there’s still the Royal AM mess.

There are lot of matches which have been labelled "postponed" due to Royal AM’s indefinite suspension by the PSL owing to their curatorship by Sars.

Those games have turned the league upside down as the gaps between the teams who are either chasing for the title or trying to avoid relegation is rather huge.

Take at the top for instance. Mamelodi Sundowns have a 15-point lead over the second-placed Orlando Pirates who have four games in hand.

And so mathematically, should Pirates win all their games in hand, including against Royal AM – even via a walkover - they’d just be three points behind Sundowns.

Then there’s the matter of the team at the bottom. It’s hard to imagine that the team juggling between the 15th and 13th are not looking at the Royal AM with interest.

Because should Royal AM be booted out of the league in May, the team which finishes above them would be subject to a lifeline via the play-offs.

But hey, I have got news for them. Or rather let me refresh their memories. This Royal AM side hasn’t been one to go down without a fight. And it might not start now!

This was the very same team that believed they were automatically promoted to the elite league four seasons ago after finishing top of the log in the NFD standings.

They were only left with eggs on their faces after an arbitration ruled that Sekhukhune United - not them – were the team which’d move to the top-flight after winning a case against Polokwane City.

Of course, they didn’t take that lying down as they took the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CaS) only for it to be struck off the roll as they had to play in the play-offs.

They imagined themselves as bigger than the play-offs; they pulled a no show for some of the matches resulting in Chippa United retaining their status.

But club president Shauwn Mkhize still had a masterstroke trick up her sleeve as she went the route that’s now fashionably travelled, buying the status of Bloemfontein Celtic.

Her achievement in that regard didn’t only bring a dark cloud to the people of Bloemfontein, but SA football - not only are Celtic missed but Royal AM has brought the league into disrepute.

Mkhize’s inability to get her house in order by having a healthy relationship with the taxman has led to the starvation of families as players and staff are not paid at the club.

Sure, it would be easy to assume that she’s finally out of her depth as the big table of the PSL Board of Governors (BoG) seemed to be overwhelming for her.

But if reports that Sars want to sell the club for a measly R15 million, there’s no putting aside the fact that she can still get the money and buy the club under a different consortium.

And should that happen, how then does the PSL know they won’t find themselves in hot water with the new owners who’d want to play their outstanding matches and to save their elite status?

It’s a guessing game really. But if anything, Mkhize has shown that she has a never-say-die attitude and doesn’t easily give up without a fight, regardless of the situation.

So my advice to the teams, especially those that are right at the foot of the table, is that they must continue to play every league game as a cup final.

Or else, they run the risk of being scripted in Mkhize’s reality tv show KwaMaMakhize – and it won’t be nice!