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Pressure on Ajax to return to the PSL

───   MORGAN PIEK 11:47 Thu, 16 May 2019

Pressure on Ajax to return to the PSL | News Article
Ari Efstathiou - Chris Ricco/BackpagePix

The National First Division club, Ajax Cape Town, is desperate to return to the Premier Soccer League after failing to qualify for the promotion-relegation matches.


Due to the Urban Warriors failure to secure a spot in the top flight of South African football, they face the real possibility of their parent club, Ajax Amsterdam, in the Netherlands pulling out from their 20-year long relationship, or they could be seeking to buy the 49% stake owned by the current CEO, Ari Efstathiou.

Should the parent club opt to buyout Efstathiou, the former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper, Hans Vonk, could take over the as the CEO of the club in the Mother City,

Efstathiou returned from Amsterdam earlier in the week where he held a crisis meeting with the Dutch giants, who are not happy about the fact that the South African club are playing in lower tier league.

Ajax brought an urgent application on Tuesday to challenge the decision of the PSL Arbitration not to dock points from Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila FC. TTM FC finished third in the NFD, ahead of the Cape Town-based club by virtue of a better goal difference (one goal). That application was dismissed and the promotion-relegation matches begun on Wednesday afternoon.

The second option Ajax have is to buy the PSL status from a club which is already playing in the league. It is said that the Urban Warriors were targeting to two Free State clubs, Free State Stars and Bloemfontein Celtic.

It is believed that there was a deal with Ea Lla Koto, however, that fell through after the QwaQwa-based club was relegated over the weekend.

Celtic in their turn has strongly denied that there are any talks with Ajax. They have however reiterated that the club is still up for sale and if the right buyer comes along they will sell.

As it stands the financially embattled Phunya Sele Sele will still be playing in the PSL next season, and they will also be competing in the MTN8 Cup competition after finishing in the top eight.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport

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