Cape Town - AmaZulu head coach Cavin Johnson says the arbitration ruling against Ajax Cape Town comes as a surprise after his side dropped out of the top 8 as a result.
Usuthu dropped from 7th position to 9th in the Absa Premiership standings after SuperSport United were awarded three points in their fixture against the Urban Warriors due to the Cape side fielding an ineligible player, Tendai Ndoro.
Ajax Cape Town were sensationally relegated from the South African top-flight after being found guilty of fielding Ndoro - with the player receiving a two match suspension.
"This comes as a major surprise to us because our players have been released to go home," Johnson said. You're in the top eight, you stand a chance to win R8 million after three games, those were our plans.
"It's a shock to me. It's a shock to the club. We are looking at it and making sure that we make the right decision regarding where we end up. It's quite unfair that we suffered a great deal of pain and a great deal of effort to be where we are.
"So I think we need to respect that as football players because we did get our points on the field."
"I thought initially everything was under wrap and it was about just making a decision on a few things, now it turns out it's affected a lot more than the docking of three points from Ajax Cape Town...it's taken a long time...for us as a club it's a setback."
AmaZulu representatives presented their support in the Johannesburg High Court for the urgent interdict brought forward by Ajax to stop the promotion playoffs from taking place.
Ajax hope to stop the playoffs from going ahead in an attempt to appeal the ruling against the club.