Soccer Laduma can exclusively reveal that Black Leopards have successfully purchased the status of another Motsepe Foundation Championship side and will remain in the same division next season.
The Thohoyandou-based side finished bottom of the table and thus dropped to the third tier of South African football.
However, news reaching the Siya crew's desk is that the club has successfully negotiated with All Stars to purchase their status and will rename the former Cape Town-based club Black Leopards.
According to reliable sources, two months ago a Mpumalanga-based consortium tabled an R8 million offer which, according to our informant, was rejected outright by the club owners, who insisted that they needed to improve the offer before it could be accepted.
But when Leopards got relegated outright with three games remaining in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, our sources indicated that they hijacked the deal that was negotiated between the two parties and instead tabled an offer in the region of R12 million, which All Stars are believed to have accepted.
Soccer Laduma spoke to a member of the Mpumalanga-based consortium, who confirmed that they had been negotiating with All Stars and talks were progressing very well until they were suddenly informed that the seller had found a new buyer.
As soon as the league goes into recess, Leopards will start the paperwork process of renaming the club and remaining in Thohoyandou. It is not clear at this stage what will happen to their own status and whether they will sell it or simply get rid of it.
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