Four Warriors players — two of whom played in the Guinea and Mozambique matches — were yesterday allegedly caught red-handed having lunch with an Asiagate suspect and being thanked “for a job well done”, NewsDay can reveal.
Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze confirmed the development last night.
“We are disturbed by these shenanigans and they come barely 48 hours after we (Warriors) had played terribly in Mozambique and just over a week after that 1-0 loss to Guinea at home,” he said.
Mashingaidze’s comments came a week after Warriors interim coach Rahman Gumbo alleged that a lot of politics had engulfed Zimbabwean football after a football agent had attempted to take out a striker from camp for a medical in South Africa.
Mashingaidze said: “We confronted the players after the tip-off and we told them what their actions meant to Zimbabwe and their careers. This is a serious issue and we are going to talk to the relevant security organs in the country.
“We are aware of the plans to distract the Warriors that would go into overdrive this week, but we are saying if you fix matches, you are fixing who besides football and Zimbabwe?”
Zifa yesterday said it suspected that Zimbabwe’s two 2014 World Cup matches against Guinea and Mozambique could have been fixed.
Reports on the social networks and in the State media last night named Thomas Svesve, Zhaimu Jambo, Knowledge Musona and Ovidy Karuru as the players involved.
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The name of the Asiagate suspect who was hosting the four in the Harare central business district has been made available to NewsDay.
Two of the players allegedly caught red-handed in yesterday’s scam, Musona and Karuru played in the Guinea and Mozambique matches, and the other two, Jambo and Svesve are still suspended over the Asiagate scandal and they both play in South Africa. They were confronted by a Zifa staffer after a tip-off from some Warriors fans who had spotted them.
“They were at a loss for words when we caught them. They had gone there in a car belonging to one of the players and could not even say a word,” sources said.
When asked what they were doing, the players are reported to have said: “We were just picking up some papers from these guys.”
Last Friday, Zifa president Cuthbert Dube said some of the alleged match-fixers had travelled to Maputo for the Mozambique match.
Dube, who was speaking during the ground-breaking ceremony of the Fifa Goal Project III at Zifa Village in Mt Hampden before the Mozambique trip, said: “I’m really hoping during the game against Mozambique these rats will not be involved again in match-fixing.
“During the game against Guinea you could see a player getting so close to the goalkeeper and shooting well wide. We had more opportunities in that match and we could have scored at least four goals. The team is good, but we have got our own suspicions. We were discussing this with (Zifa board member) Brigadier Elliot Kasu and then we hear that there is a team of people already in Maputo and staying at the same hotel the players will be staying.
“What a shame. Anyway, every dog has its day. It shall come to an end. And to some people who think they are now off the hook, there is going to be a huge and rude awakening one of these days.”
Coach Gumbo last week said: “All we need to be successful is to change our attitude; we are not serious. I have to be frank, there is just too much politics within Zimbabwean football which poisons everything.”
Mashingaidze yesterday said: “The coach and the technical team have been under the spotlight for the results and the issue of moving games to Rufaro as these people (suspected match-fixers) have been trying, seeks to divert attention from the real issues.
“The match against Burundi will still be played at the National Sports Stadium (NSS) because we have identified the source of the problem. People want to make the technical team cannon fodder and we have told them (coaches) to remain focused. So we will be taking the issue to government because this is unacceptable, disgraceful, unpatriotic and shameful.”
The Warriors lost 1-0 to Guinea on June 3 at the NSS where strikers Musona and Takesure Chinyama took turns to miss chances before the 0-0 away draw to Mozambique on Sunday where Karuru also missed a gilt-edged chance in another World Cup qualifier.
This Sunday the Warriors play Burundi in the return leg of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. They lost the first leg 2-1 where Musona scored what might turn out to be a vital away goal.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter, during his visit to Zimbabwe on July 4 last year, said match fixers would be banned for life if found guilty.
