PSL club's move to Bay looks unlikely

MARITZBURG United Football Club's proposed R36-million deal to play home matches in Nelson Mandela Bay hangs in the balance.

This was confirmed by sources in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality after it was reported the Pietermaritzburg-based Premier Soccer League (PSL) outfit had failed to honour important meetings and last week's deadline "to show interest in the deal".

"This will automatically see other interested parties being called to table their plans on moving their clubs here," a senior politician who asked not to be named, said.

Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki would not confirm if the deal had fallen through. "We haven't received anything in writing from them [Maritzburg] about this but we will make a call this week to check. Then we will be able to confirm everything," Mniki said.

Maritzburg started negotiations with the metro as early as 2012 with the intention of relocating the club to play matches in Port Elizabeth.

A few months ago, newly promoted Cape Town-based PSL club Chippa United FC announced that it was also planning a move to the Bay. But the metro said it was not aware of the plans and confirmed it was in negotiations with Maritzburg.

The council's budget and treasury portfolio head, councillor Balu Naran, told the media they had agreed to relocate Maritzburg at a fee of R12-million a year for the next three years.

But the plans were thwarted when Eastern Cape Sports Council president Mkululi Magada and South African Football Association (Safa) Nelson Mandela Bay president Monde Mhletywa intervened. Both said they were never consulted about the plans to move Maritzburg to the province.

Yesterday Mhletywa said he had heard that Maritzburg was no longer coming to the Eastern Cape. "We heard about it but we will only confirm it later. We've been calling for Maritzburg to meet with us about their plans and they've failed to do that," Mhletywa said.

If the deal is indeed off, the way will be paved for Chippa United to clinch the multimillion-rand deal as it is the only other team to express interest in playing in the Bay.

Chippa United chairman Siviwe Mpengesi however yesterday referred all questions to the metro.

"I think the best people suited to answer such questions are the metro or Maritzburg United. Really there's nothing I could say," Mpengesi said.

Mniki said a meeting scheduled for later in the week would shed light on the matter.

"There is a planned meeting in the week and this is when we will be able to say what is happening about this deal," he said.

Attempts to get a comment from new Maritzburg spokesman Brian Zuma were unsuccessful yesterday. - Bongani Fuzile