By Dylan Bettencourt
- The PSL board will meet on 11 April to confirm Royal AM’s expulsion after months of drama and missed games.
- The club’s DStv Premiership status crashed after a failed auction and a R40-million tax bill from Sars.
Royal AM’s time in the Betway Premiership looks all but over.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is preparing to expel the club, which is owned by businesswoman and reality TV star Shauwn “MaMkhize” Mkhize, after months of financial issues.
Veteran sports broadcaster Robert Marawa broke the news on social media, saying the decision is basically final.
“According to the Marawa Scorpions, the PSL is on the verge of dismissing what is left of Royal AM with immediate effect,” he wrote on X.
Marawa added that the club curator won’t get anything for it because it would have been relegated anyway.
Royal AM was placed under curatorship by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) in November after failing to pay a R40-million tax debt.
Since then, things have gone from bad to worse. The club hasn’t played a Premiership game since December and has only taken to the pitch 11 times this season. It also missed several fixtures and has been banned by Fifa from signing new players.
Players have been walking away due to unpaid salaries, and a recent auction to sell the club’s Premiership status failed when the winning bidder didn’t pass Sars vetting or make payment.
Now, the PSL executive committee has recommended that the club’s membership be scrapped.
In a letter seen by Sowetan, the league accuses the KwaZulu-Natal team of failing to meet its obligations and giving false information in its membership renewal. It also says the club transferred shares in a way that broke the rules.
An emergency meeting of the PSL Board of Governors has been called for Friday, 11 April at the Sandton Convention Centre. But with the executive committee already pushing for expulsion, it’s expected to be a rubber stamp.
If Royal AM is kicked out, their results will be erased and the league will carry on with just 15 teams.
Pictured above: MamKhize.
Image source: File
