Downs weaken United! Team of Choice left choiceless Maritzburg United have been dealt a massive blow ahead of what will be undoubtedly their toughest season yet. The Team of Choice are left with no choice but to select a weakened team for 8 August when they open their 2014-15 Absa Premiership account against Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Stadium. The Maritzburg side will have to face the expensively assembled Brazilians without at least five key players when they visit the Jacaranda city. The defensive trio of Abel Masabo, Kwanda Mngonyama and Sibusiso Kumalo are not allowed to feature against their parent club. They are on a season-loan from Sundownd who have, once again, exercised their controversial loan clause which prevents their players from playing against them. Adding to the woes of the already depleted and modest Maritzburg side is the fact that they cant feature new foreigners in experienced defender john Paintsil from Ghana and Zimbabwean striker Terrence Mandaza because of new PSL regulations. According to Maritzburg spokesman Younis Kadodia, the PSL has a new rule that stipulates that any new foreigner has to wait for his work permit to be sorted out before he can take to the field - which can take months with SAs Home Affairs,. This means coach Steve Komphela will only be able to field Paintsil and Mandaza three matches into the season, as their registrations are still being processed. A concerned Kadodia told media: This whole situation puts us at a huge disadvantage, considering we dont have depth in our squad. Its a bitter pill to swallow but we have engaged the PSL to see how we can get around the issue. Sundowns spokeman Thulani TT Thuswa confirmed that their on-loan players at Maritzburg as well as those at other clubs in the PSL would not be playing against them. Unfortunately, for teams raising concerns of being under-staffed, the loan clause still remains, Thuswa said. Maritzburg chairman Farook Kadodia also chimed in on the issue: This also means that our new signing, Khumbulani Banda (23), cannot play either because he is from Zimbabwe and his paperwork hasnt cleared yet. There is another Ghanaian striker coming next week and he will also be affected by this. The whole situation must be leaving Komphela with a monster headache, since he lost a lot of star players in the off-season.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 13:55:13 +0000
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