Covid-19 inflicted Kaizer Chiefs failed to arrive for their league encounter with Cape Town City at FNB Stadium on Saturday evening, as has been widely expected.
It appears now though that they will have effectively suffered a 3-0 defeat.
City confirmed that they had been ready to honour the fixture and that the oppositon never arrived.
"Having followed all matchday procedures, Cape Town City FC was present at FNB Stadium for the start of the match at 18:00.
"Regrettably Chiefs did not arrive and the match officials called the game off at 18:15 in accordance with the rules of the game. A sad day for football."
The PSL is yet to comment on the matter, but having not officially called the game off, it’s expected that Cape Town City will win the game 3-0 via the walkover rule, which is reserved for when one team does not show up for a fixture.
Chiefs had announced on Friday that they would not be able to honour the fixture after 31 members of the camp (players and technical team personnel) had tested positive for Covid-19.
The Cape club, who had already travelled to Gauteng, had been upfront from the outset that they would be proceeding as usual on matchday, having not been told by the PSL that the fixture would not be taking place.
City published their usual pre-match build up on social media, including their starting XI and subs.
Cape Town City chairman John Comitis was also quoted saying that the PSL had not postponed the match in Soweto.
“The league responded to the request of Kaizer Chiefs in writing, saying that under the circumstances they cannot postpone the game,” said Comitis as per Sowetan Live.
“And we [City] have not received any notification from the league that there is no game. The league responded to Chiefs before the [exco] meeting that they could not approve their request.
Chiefs might decide to appeal, although they will also be aware that a potential precedent was set in January after second-tier side Cape Umoya's application to the PSL to have a fixture postponed because of a number of Covid-19 cases in their team, was rejected.
Cape Umoya's opponents that day, Cape Town Spurs, were handed a 3-0 walkover, which was also upheld at arbitration.
The Glamour Boys have also asked that their games be postponed against Cape Town City on 4 December, Golden Arrows on 8 December, Sekhukhune FC (12 December), Royal AM (19 December) and Maritzburg United, three days before Christmas, in order “to avoid risk of infection and further spread of the virus and allow those affected to recover and complete their quarantine period before they can play against other teams,” according to a statement on the club website.
While Stuart Baxter's side were not in action on Saturday, they slipped from second to third on the league table, finding themselves being overtaken by Royal AM following the Durban side’s 0-0 derby draw against AmaZulu. Royal AM are equal with Amakhosi on 22 points, but have a better goal difference.