The Zifa Appeals Committee yesterday took football in Zimbabwe to higher levels of mediocrity when they allowed the result of the Dynamos-Hwange match to stand despite clear evidence of violence before the match.
The match in question, which Dynamos won 4-2 at Rufaro on May 6, was played without Hwange coaches Nation Dube and Mebelo Njekwa who were assaulted by Dynamos marshals.
The Zifa body found Dynamos guilty, but still maintained that they must get three points — a clear contradiction which might leave football fans and observers wondering whose interests the committee is serving.
The league’s disciplinary committee noted that Dynamos’ marshals Abraham Kwenda, James Dzamu and Simbarashe Zviita admitted assaulting the Hwange technical team, but the match still went ahead, mainly because security of the fans was the bigger issue than Hwange refusing to play.
The Appeals Committee believes the Premier Soccer League (PSL) Disciplinary committee was biased against Dynamos and they are using the statements from the Harare side only. We think this is unfair.
The PSL Disciplinary Committee made a decision that Dynamos gained an unfair advantage over their opponents by eliminating the technical team and ordered a replay at a neutral venue.
To us, the Zifa Appeals committee is simply advocating for violence because you can’t find someone guilty, but still don’t believe that they must lose points at worst, or replay the match as a compromise to show that you are against violence. The committee believes that as long as there was no evidence of trauma by Hwange players, based on the fact that they scored two goals during the match, then marshals can beat up coaches and the match can still go ahead. It’s a shame, to say the least.
We might be tempted to ask exactly whose interests is the committee serving — football or other constituencies which believe that violence is the way to go in Zimbabwean football?
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Are you (Appeals Committee) saying Fifa messed up when they ordered a replay between the Warriors and the Pharoahs in 1993? Is the Appeals Committee suggesting that because Dynamos did not get justice from Caf in 1998, they must get their revenge from Hwange now?
We think the committee has simply misdirected itself and have made it clear to Zimbabwe that you are not part of the football family. We think you support violence in football and you will do everything in your power to ensure that those who perpetrate violence in football are crowned the kings.
We all thought PSL Rules and Regulations Order 31 were clear: 31.1.2 Its players, officials, servants or duly authorised (expressed or implied) representatives or supporters directly or indirectly interrupt, obstruct or disturb the normal proceedings of a game before, during or after the match (will face disciplinary action).
When other football organisations, following the deaths of 13 people at the National Sports Stadium almost a decade ago and 73 in Egypt recently, are fighting this scourge, we find a strange organisation that demands evidence of the trauma suffered by players before the game to prove a clear violent occasion.
What the committee has simply done is to open a route where this year’s champions might be decided via the boardroom, if Hwange takes the case to the Commercial Arbitration Centre, and it might not be anytime soon, until they reach a decision.
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