Bloemfontein have lost their protest at arbitration against Mamelodi Sundowns‚ who had an ineligible player on their team sheet for the Nedbank Cup final at Orlando Stadium on September 12.
Sundowns pleaded guilty and face a fine. Judgement on the Brazilians will be handed down on Monday.
Sundowns beat Celtic 1-0 to lift their third trophy of the season‚ after the Nedbank Cup and Absa Premiership. However the Brazilians slipped up naming suspended Tebogo Langerman on their team sheet‚ on the bench.
Celtic had hoped to have the result overturned‚ but lost on a technicality‚ said the club’s CEO Khumbulani Konco.
“Ja‚ that’s right‚” Konco told TimesLIVE on Friday evening‚ asked to confirm Celtic had lost the protest.
Asked to confirm that it was the lateness of Celtic’s protest that caused them to lose‚ Konco said: “Ja. Remember of you deal with this‚ the arbitrator was looking at the NSL Handbook.
“So the NSL Handbook says that it [a protest] should be done 30 minutes before kickoff. We protested in the second half.”
Sundowns’ win in the closed-doors bio-bubble final came via Gaston Sirino’s 80th-minute strike.
