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Marumo Gallants head coach Dan Malesela says they are paying little attention to Royal AM’s legal woes in their bid to avoid relegation from the Betway Premiership.
Gallants find themselves in the 14th spot on the log, just seven points ahead of bottom-placed Royal AM, who could face expulsion from the Premier Soccer League owing to their legal battles with the South African Revenue Services (SARS).
With Twihli Twahla yet to kick a ball in 2025, Malesela says his focus remains on helping Gallants climb up the log with their on-field showing rather than depending on boardroom decisions to salvage their topflight status.
"It has never even come to my mind – my mind is based on climbing up the league [table]. I would be a very poor coach, or a very... I don't know what's the right word, a person who is not ambitious, if I really start thinking about how we sit at the bottom," said Malesela.
"I'm looking at the gap of points now, as we speak, and saying, 'Oh, SuperSport is just above us, if we had gotten to 18 [points] then we are above them, and now we're on 18, the other clubs have 20 – I'm looking at those things.
"Now we have to relook again because I didn't want to go there and look back, but now we have to look at how close is it – we have two points and, and..."
Should Royal AM indeed suffer banishment, it could see points from matches involving AM expunged from all 15 teams, but Malesela insisted they are concerned with their own matches instead of this case.
"But I've never really thought about, 'Hey, what if Royal AM this, and this, and this. That would be more worried about relegation than being worried about climbing up the log," he stated.
