Ndorogate continues to haunt Ajax

The Tendai Ndoro saga continues to haunt Ajax Cape Town with the South African side’s sister club, Ajax Amsterdam reportedly reconsidering their relationship with the club following the former’s demotion into the National First Division.

The Urban Warriors decided against pursuing further legal steps to keep their top-flight status and will now play in the National First Division next season.

Ajax Cape Town boss Ari Efstathiou co-owns the club with the Dutch giants and said his partners from the Netherlands are understood not to have been pleased by the “Ndorogate” saga and its outcome.
“They are extremely disappointed,” Efstathiou said.

“They are backing the club in the NFD, but they are considering their options and that’s understandable.”

Ajax Cape Town say they ran out of time and immediate legal manoeuvres to keep fighting against the docking of points after they played Ndoro in spite of the fact that the Zimbabwean international had already featured for two other clubs in a single season.

They were stripped points to finish last in the Absa Premiership and were automatically relegated‚ although they kept up a legal bid to stay up until the process came to a halt last Friday.

“They are extremely disappointed with what has happened and the results of the court cases‚” Efstathiou said.
“I don’t think it reflects very well on South African football that a matter takes five months to come to a situation like this and even worse‚ that the league actually finished before the ruling against us came out.

“It was a process that was delayed and who can (blame) them‚ sitting on the outside looking in‚ being perplexed because legal issues in all the other association usually take no longer than a week to settle while we have been at it for five months.”

Efstathiou said their Dutch partners had been aware of all the legal manoeuvring over the last five months.

“From the first step that we took‚ we have been discussing it with them so they were very aware of it. I made public statements with regard to that.

“They‚ obviously‚ followed the process and they were completely behind what we agreed to do.”
While his former team’s partnership with their Dutch sister club is in doubt, Ndoro seems to be now focussing on the possibility of a move to Kaizer Chiefs.

It has emerged that Chiefs midfield hardman Willard Katsande will play a huge role in convincing fellow Zimbabwean Tendai Ndoro to join Amakhosi for the upcoming season.

Katsande and Ndoro used to play together in the Zimbabwean national team and having convinced new recruit Khama Biliat, a source said Katsande has kept constant communication with Ndoro to make him realise joining Chiefs could be good for his career.

“They know each other very well and like he did with Khama, he will speak to Ndoro to join the club. The team have already showed their interest and now it’s up to Ndoro to make his decision.

“They believe he will add a lot of value in the club’s attack. It’s understood that he has been going through a tough time with that Ajax Cape Town and the Absa Premiership League case, but they are confident that he will settle in very well at the club,” said the source. — Sowetan