Fourteen players from the Fidentia Rangers football team face retrenchment, as the curators of the investment company at the centre of a multi-million rand scandal wield the axe to cut spending.
The news of the looming suspensions came as a shock to the players from Mvela Golden League team because they were promised their contracts would be secure in the wake of the scandal, according to the South African Football Players' Union (Sapfu).
But on Saturday Sapfu nation-al organiser Cappy Matutoane said they were still hopeful the retrenchment could be avoided.
He called on the curators to "hold back" the retrenchment as Fidentia was still under provisional liquidation.
He also held out hope that the players' contracts could be saved if the club was sold to a willing buyer.
Fidentia bought Manning Rangers FC for about R2,5-million last year and renamed it Fidentia Rangers.
Matutoane said Sapfu would meet the players and representatives of curators in Cape Town on Monday to discuss the way forward.