The South African Revenue Service curator has indicated that Royal AM is up for sale, after putting up a public notice announcing the auctioning of the club to recoup outstanding tax debt.
Interested parties can now bid to buy the troubled Premier Soccer League team, as SARS attempts to recoup a reported R40m tax debt owed by Royal owner Shauwn Mkhize.
The bidding process will be open from 8am to 1pm on 14 March, with the announcement of the winning bid scheduled for three days later at 5pm.
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“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 29 December, forcing the league to indefinitely suspend their fixtures.
It remains to be seen how the league will reschedule their 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.
