KwaZulu-Natal club Royal AM have been been given a deadline by FIFA to pay their former striker Samir Nurkovic compensation or else they could be banned from registering any new players.
The former Kaizer Chiefs striker, who recently trained with Cape Town City, as he searches for a new club, was signed this time last year after he left Amakhosi, who had decided that they will not renew his contract.
At Royal AM, as the club was looking to compete in Africa having finished third to qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup, they felt Nurkovic’s addition was going to be beneficial after he led Chiefs to the CAF Champions League final in 2021.
The burly striker will be remembered for scoring the vital goal when Chiefs defeated Wydad Athletic Club 1-0 in the semi-final first leg in Morocco, with Arthur Zwane’s side blanking the Moroccan giants in the second leg in South Africa to reach the final.
Royal AM were hoping he could help them with that experience, but it turned out to be a nightmare spell, as Nurkovic never officially played a match for the club after picking up an injury in pre-season and he was never paid his salary either.
He arrived at the club injured and Royal AM, having been made aware that he will not recover soon, decided to terminate his two-year contract without compensation.
This led to Nurkovic consulting his lawyer, Davor Lazic, to file a case for breach of contract at FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber, and Royal AM was found guilty and it was ruled that they have to pay the player with the immediate effect.
“We got the decision from FIFA and it was distributed on 3 May and basically it says the club never filed anything in the period of 10 days given to them and now they don’t have any rights to appeal on the Court of Arbitration because that has lapsed,” Lazic told iDiski Times from Croatia.
“Basically now the decision is final and binding. This means the club should pay for the compensation to Samir for the full two years of the contract within 40 days of the notification of the decision.
“It was notified on 3 May and that means the deadline for the full payment expires on Monday, 19 June.”
Failure to settle this bill will mean Royal AM will be barred from signing players, just like Nurkovic’s former club Chiefs in 2020 over the signing of Malagasy player Andriamirado Aro Hasina Andrianamimanana.
“If they don’t do that, then the club will be banned from registering new players nationally or internationally until the money is paid,” said Lazic on the consequences.
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“If they still don’t want to pay and if they continue doing so, FIFA can fine the club because that will be considered as the persistent failure to pay and persistent disobey the rulings of FIFA.
“In that scenario, it can be a deduction of points or relegation to lower divisions.”
This publication has tried to reach Royal AM president Shaun ‘Ma’ Mkhize for a comment on this situation but couldn’t reach her team at the time of publishing.
