Royal AM appeal dismissed by Court of Arbitration for Sport

By Mazola Molefe
14th October 2024

SABC Sport has established that the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] has thrown out Royal AM’s request to have their FIFA ban overturned.

The KwaZulu-Natal outfit approached the tribunal in an effort to end their contractual dispute saga with striker Samir Nurkovic after the world governing body had ruled more than a year ago that the player should be paid R12-million.

Nurkovic had his two-year agreement with Royal AM terminated prematurely and the Serbian international took the matter to Zurich.

Royal AM have now entered a second successive domestic season without being able to register new players and were hoping the CAS would rule in their favour following months of attempting to change the verdict.

The public broadcaster has it on good authority that the tribunal has now dismissed their appeal and once again ordered them to comply with the FIFA ruling and settle the amount owed to Nurkovic.

It’s yet another blow for the Premier Soccer League [PSL] club, who at the weekend had their DStv Diski Challenge team kicked out of that division.

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Royal AM, due to the FIFA ban, had been unable to sign new players for the reserve league with this leaving them without enough players to honour any of the fixtures for the 2024/25 season.

The PSL hierarchy were forced to deliberate and take a decision on the future of the KZN side in the Diski Challenge after they’d failed to feature in six matches so far this season, leaving them at the bottom of the log table.

On Friday, there was an outcome from the executive committee.

“Royal AM Football Club has been unable to field a team in the 2024/25 DStv Diski Challenge competition due to a FIFA registration ban. After reviewing the facts and representations presented by the club this week, the PSL Executive Committee has resolved to halt Royal AM Football Club's participation in the 2024/25 DStv Diski Challenge competition,” read a statement from the league.

With the CAS throwing out their case, it means Royal AM have no choice but to pay Nurkovic to have any hope of ever registering new players.