Suspended sentences remain the buzzword of the Premier Soccer League's disciplinary committee.
Almost without fail, every time the disciplinary committee must mete out punishment, it will water down punishment with suspended sentences. The punishment barely fits the crime.
Following their latest sitting on Monday, the disciplinary committee decided on a slap-on-the-wrist fine of R150 000 which they feel was adequate punishment for Kaizer Chiefs' two incidents of crowd violence last month.
Usually, when dealing with incidents of crowd behaviour the disciplinary committee will talk about errant behaviour of fans damaging the Premier Soccer League's image. However, it does not seem this consideration comes into play when meting out punishment for repeat offenders Chiefs, who have received many suspended fines over the years.
One of the reasons for this is the conflict of interest that exists because the PSL prosecutor Zola Majavu and the disciplinary committee members are appointed by the club owners in the PSL. In simple terms, these members must sit in judgment of the people who appoint them.
The PSL have been so determined to maintain this conflict of interest at all costs that they will not even appoint a chief operations officer outside the ranks of their club owners. Following the departure of the very capable CEO Brand de Villiers, in 2015, the PSL have decided to rope in a club owner as an acting CEO and that has been the case ever since.
In their latest sitting, the DC had to deal with two incidents of crowd violence after disenchanted Chiefs pelted new head coach Molefi Ntseki and his technical team with missiles at the end of matches, twice in the space of three days in September. In both cases, Chiefs suffered defeats.
This behaviour makes a mockery of the club's mantra 'love and peace'.
In response to the two bouts of hooliganism, the Chiefs were fined R200 000, of which R50 000 was suspended. It was a repeat offence and they needed to fork out R30 000 which had been suspended for a previous incident.
The DC also decided that it would top up this punishment with another suspended sentence to hang over their heads. If found guilty of the same offence in the next six months there will be a stadium lock out, which means a spectator ban for their next match.
Chiefs have also been ordered to pay the costs of the disciplinary committee's seating.
Chiefs also suffered yet another loss, this time they went down 1-0 to a feisty Cape Town City side on Tuesday night.
@Herman_Gibbs