Chiefs win again! Spurs lose Velebayi, Baartman appeal to give Amakhosi greenlight to field duo

Since joining Kaizer Chiefs in the recent Premier Soccer League's transfer window, former Cape Town Spurs duo Asanele Velebayi and Luke Baartman haven't made an official debut.

Despite being declared free agents by the PSL Dispute Resolution Chamber, the Urban Warriors appealed to SAFA, arguing that the Glamour Boys should compensate them for developing the players since expenses were incurred. 

According to the NSL rules, once a club is relegated to the third tier, they cease to be a professional entity and become an amateur one. However, the Cape Town outfit had a different argument.

What Spurs said

“In a decision that has sent shockwaves through the South African football community, a National Soccer League (NSL) Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) (Panel Members: Mosupi Mashele (Chairperson), Amanda Vilakazi, and Adv. Saleem Seedat) has declared Cape Town Spurs player Asanele Velebayi a free agent following the club’s relegation. While on the surface it appears to be a victory for player freedom, the ruling is a legal and logical catastrophe—one built on contradictory reasoning and a wilful ignorance of contractual law. More alarmingly, it has fired a fatal shot into the heart of football development, threatening to make long-term investment in young talent an unsustainable and ultimately pointless endeavour,” they stated in an initial statement.

 “The premise of the case was simple: Spurs were relegated, and players like Velebayi, Liam Bern, and Luke Baartman (all of whom came through the Spurs academy over a combined period of 30 years) argued this fundamentally changed their employment, entitling them to walk away from their contracts. Spurs, a club with a three-decade legacy of nurturing talent, stood firm on the legal principle of pacta sunt servanda: a contract is a contract. The club sent letters to the players insisting their contracts remained valid and binding. 

“The DRC panel, in its wisdom, sided with the player. But the path it took to get there was not one of sound legal principle, but of baffling self-contradiction. In its award, the panel first agrees with a previous ruling (Mokhari SC) that relegation does not automatically grant free agency. Then, in a stunning reversal just paragraphs later, it declares that the “ordinary grammatical meaning” of the rules means relegation alone is enough,” they argued.

What SAFA says

“SAFA arbitrator Hilton Epstein SC has ruled in favour of Kaizer Chiefs, giving the Soweto giants the green light to field midfielders Asanele Velebayi and Luke Baartman,” SABC reported on Wednesday.

“Epstein has now heard arguments from the legal representatives of both Spurs and the players before dismissing the appeal, effectively upholding the DRC’s ruling – clearing Chiefs to register and field the pair in all domestic competitions.

“While this represents another major victory for Amakhosi, the saga may not be over yet – Spurs could still take the matter to the High Court in a last-ditch attempt to reverse the decision,” they concluded.