Kaizer Chiefs will argue that their handwriting expert's evidence should not have been dismissed, and that Madagascar's professional league was only formed last year when they petition the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn a Fifa ruling against them in the matter involving forward Andriamirado "Dax" Andrianarimanana.
Chiefs have been banned from signing players in the next two transfer windows, and Dax has been suspended for four months and ordered to pay close to R640,000 in compensation, plus interest, which will fall to the Soweto club.
Dax joined Chiefs from Malagasy side Fosa Juniors in July 2018, but the islanders claimed he had signed a professional contract with them since November 2016, something the player vehemently denies.
Chiefs will take their appeal to CAS, having not had the opportunity to give a heads of argument in the Fifa case, which made a ruling based on submitted evidence only.
The AmaKhosi will also argue that Dax's former club failed to load the alleged contract onto Fifa's Transfer Matching System (TMS) as they should have done had it existed at the time of his move. Instead it was only revealed months later, with a signature that Dax claims is not his, which was backed by a handwriting expert brought in by Chiefs.
However, the Fifa dispute resolution chamber (DRC) says in their judgment report, which the Sunday Times has in its possession: "Fifa's deciding bodies are not competent to decide upon matters of criminal law, such as the ones of alleged falsified signatures or documents, and that such affairs fall into the jurisdiction of the competent national criminal authority."
They did, however, consider whether the signature may have been forged, and decided it was not, though it is unclear what methods they used bar simply comparing the two.
"After a thorough analysis of the aforementioned documents, in particular, comparing the relevant signature on the contract dated 1 November 2016 to the other documentation on file, the DRC concluded that for a layman the player's signatures on the various documents available, including the proposal and the contract eventually signed by the player and Kaizer Chiefs, seem to be alike and genuine."
Chiefs will hope that CAS take a close look at the evidence they presented in this regard.
Dax admitted to receiving a salary from Fosa Juniors, but says this did not cover his living expenses, which by Fifa definition would rule him an amateur.
Chiefs will also argue that Fosa Juniors should have loaded his purported contract onto the Fifa TMS at the time they contacted the Malagasy club, but this was not done and has seemingly not been explained by the islanders.
An interesting side note is that Madagascar's professional league was formed ahead of the 2019/20 season, with Fosa Juniors owner Arno Steenkist as its CE, a full year after Dax joined Chiefs.
The AmaKhosi, for their part, must explain why they made an offer of US$25,000 (about R340,000) compensation to Fosa Juniors if they recognised his status as amateur and were not required to do so.
The Fifa DRC confirmed that Chiefs had written to the Malagasy club offering the following: "After consultation with our Board of Directors and Football Manager the compensation offered to Fosa Juniors FC is USD25,000. Thrusting [sic] you will accept our offer for which we wish to thank you in anticipation."
The Sunday Times understands Chiefs will argue this was merely an offer of goodwill, but that will need some interrogation.
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