Orlando Pirates were scheduled to play Royal AM in the Premier Soccer League on Thursday.
However, the match was not played; there are reports the club's owner Shauwn Mkhize owes the national tax regulator R40 million. The game was canceled since Thwihli Thwahla had not provided a joint letter with the curator confirming they are cleared to play.
Pirates coach Jose Riveiro is not amused that his team failed to play on Thursday as planned. However, the attention has now shifted to Sunday's Nedbank Cup's Round of 32 game against Richards Bay.
Pirates wanted to fight for PSL points
“[The cancellation of the Royal AM game was] not really [a blessing in disguise],” the Spaniard told the media.
“It's a permanent adaptation to circumstances of our job and this is one more, we don't complain about it. We were prepared to travel to Durban and stay there for the rest of the week, having a good camp, and preparing for these two games but we couldn't, unfortunately.
“We would have liked to play the game on [Thursday] and fight for those three points, trust me. Now we have to switch our minds and understand that we're playing a final. If you want to win the Nedbank Cup, you have to play finals every day from the first game.”
Riveiro is not expecting an easy outing on Sunday as Bucs start their journey to defend their crown, “Bay are a difficult team but at the same time, we are happy to start our time in the Nedbank Cup. We have nice memories of this competition in the last two seasons. We have a difficult task ahead of us to defend the title one more time, but it's something nice.”
