It’s official: MaMkhize’s troubled Royal AM club is up for sale

Interested parties can now bid to buy troubled Premier Soccer League (PSL) team Royal AM.

The SA Revenue Service (Sars) curator put up a public notice announcing the club will be auctioned off in a bid to recoup a reported R40m tax debt owed by Royal owner Shauwn “MaMkhize” Mkhize.

The bidding process will be open from 8am to 1pm on March 14 with the announcement of the winning bid scheduled for three days later at 5pm.

“The curator bonis of Royal AM Football Club (Pty) Ltd hereby invites all/any interested parties to submit offers for the purchase of the football club known as Royal AM as a going concern. The owner of Royal AM FC is Royal AM Football Club (Pty) Ltd,” read the curator's public notice in part.

As the club is being sold as a “going concern”, this means whoever buys it will inherit all the club's debts such as the R15m they owe former player Samir Nurković, which triggered the Fifa transfer ban Royal are subject to. 

Amid players and technical staff not being paid and not training, Royal have not played a match since losing their Betway Premiership clash against TS Galaxy on December 29, forcing the league to indefinitely suspend their fixtures. 

It remains to be seen how the league will reschedule Thwihli Thwahla's games when the new owners take over as the fixture programme is already frenetic for all the other 15 Premiership sides. 

Royal have missed nine league matches during their inactive period and that seems an impossible amount to catch up. In all, Royal have 19 games to play to complete the season, which ends in May. 

Attempts to reach PSL acting CEO Mato Madlala and Royal's GM Richard Makhoba for comment were unsuccessful.

Sars has asked for offers to buy Royal to be submitted by e-mail to: pg@bidderschoice.co.za.

A refundable R1m must also be paid into a trust account of the curator's legal representatives. 

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