Terrence Mawawa

Ajax Capetown Chairman Ari Efstathiou has issued a statement regarding Zimbabwean striker Tendai Ndoro’s departure barely six months into his contract.

Ajax Capetown who were last season relegated to the National First Division after being docked points for using the player who was deemed illegible to play in the ABSA Premiership.

Efstathiou told KickOff that the decision to release Tendai Ndoro was easy stating a number of reasons.

“It was easy: we had an option to extend his contract, which was a two-year arrangement with him,” Efstathiou said. “As you can understand, he was an expensive player and a foreigner. We had to make that decision and look at both sides: in the NFD, you can only use three foreigners, and frankly we’d have to take a third of our TV allowance that we’d be given in the NFD to pay Ndoro.

“He was also 32, turning 33, so everything was pointing more to release him than to hold on to him. It wasn’t something we wanted to do; I had a personal chat with him and he agreed as well that it would probably be best for him to leave.

“So it was a mutual agreement, and a carefully thought-out process, not an instinctive thing.”

The striker could however stay in the league with several Premiership teams chasing for his signature.