MZOXOLO BUDAZA
Premier Cup tournament director PJ Williams was quick to dismiss allegations of age cheating against Supersport United after reports that their goalkeeper is overage were published online.
The Pretoria side were still celebrating their 1-0 victory in the final against Ajax Cape Town when the Citizen newspaper published a story and quoted an unnamed Amazulu official as saying Supersport goalkeeper Mondli Mpoto was overage. Mpoto played a key role in Supersport’s victory, winning the goalkeeper of the tournament, following his heroics between the sticks.
The official, according to the paper, said the goalkeeper played for the club’s under-15 side eight years ago and his real age should be around 25 now. On top of that, a 2015 supersport.com article was circulated in the social media and went viral. The article stated, among other things, that Mpoto was, back in 2015, 21 years old, having been born in 1994.
However, in response to the claims in the Citizen, Amazulu immediately issued a statement distancing themselves from the allegations.
Williams also issued a, saying: “After doing an internal investigation via our scrutiny system, we can confirm that Mondli Mpoto was registered correctly and without any discrepancies. All documentation for the aforementioned player was deemed true and correct with his date of birth being cited as 24 July 1998, and we also confirm that the player has been on our database since his first registration in 2014.”
Williams said Supersport United also informed them that the information on the 2015 article was a result of an error on the writer’s part.
