The FIFA-imposed transfer ban on Royal AM relating to Samir Nurkovic has been heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) almost a year since it came into effect.
Nurkovic signed for Royal AM in May 2022, but the deal suffered a stillbirth with the KwaZulu-Natal outfit forcing him out, which then led to the Serbian filing an unfair dismissal case with FIFA.
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The world governing body ruled in his favour with Royal AM given a deadline of June 19, 2023, to make payment.
Upon failure to pay, a three-window transfer sanction was rolled out on July 3, 2023.
Since then, Thwihli Thwahla have gone about business without making any new signings, which ultimately led to them surviving being dragged into the Play-Offs on the last day.
Away from the field, they have taken the stance of appealing the FIFA judgement at CAS.
The time-consuming and expensive procedure has finally set off with a hearing having now taken place after Royal AM met all the appeal conditions.
CAS is now expected to make a ruling based on what has been placed on their table relating to the submission made regarding the case.
The issuing of the verdict has no date attached, which means Royal AM will remain blanketed in a transfer ban.
They are appealing FIFA's portal procedure and decision beyond the matter that Samir has against them.
This leaves the club as the appellant and Nurkovic as the first respondent and FIFA as the second respondent, making the world governing body an active participant.
Nurkovic is now with TS Galaxy, where he scored 10 goals last season after spending 17 months without playing football.
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Royal AM have another ban on their backs relating to Brazilian defender Ricardo Nascimento.
Just like Nurkovic, Nascimento won the case that he took up to FIFA, and the club is now seeking a settlement route after changing their legal representatives.