Chirinda finally cleared

Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter

OBRIEL CHIRINDA is back after the ZIFA Player Status Committee ordered the Premier Soccer League to release, within the next 48 hours, the striker’s licence to enable him to start turning out for Ngezi Platinum Stars. 

The 26-year-old has been rotting on the sidelines 14 weeks into the 2024 season after the PSL withheld his licence following contractual disputes involving Dynamos. 

Immediately after joining Ngezi Platinum from Bulawayo Chiefs early this year, Chirinda was red-flagged by the Glamour Boys, who claimed that he had also signed for them last December. 

The Glamour Boys were so adamant that they presented their case to the PSL who then decided not to clear the 2023 Soccer Star of the Year second runner-up saying the parties involved should resolve their differences first.

With the player enduring a frustrating period and mental torture, the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe engaged the PSL with no respite before they then presented the issue to ZIFA. 

The country’s football mother body relayed the matter to the Player Status Committee.

And yesterday the Nyasha Munyuru-chaired organ judged that there was no reason why Chirinda had been barred from rendering services to his new team, Ngezi Platinum Stars. 

The committee ruled that;

 The contract between Dynamos FC and Obriel Chirinda dated 19 December 2023 be and is declared invalid and of no force and effect. 

 The contract between Ngezi Platinum FC and Obriel Chirinda be and is hereby declared valid and subsisting. 

 The PSL is hereby directed to register Obriel Chirinda as a player for Ngezi Platinum FC within 48 hours of receipt of this ruling. 

In presenting their case with the PSL, Dynamos said Chirinda had signed a contract with them on December 19, 2023, in Bulawayo in the presence of his handlers. 

The player is said to have received US$6 000 from the Glamour Boys which he acknowledged in an affidavit when pressure was mounting on him at the height of the matter. 

The money is believed to be in the possession of the FUZ after Dynamos refused to take it back instead demanding that the striker join them as per the signed contract.

Although there was an element of criminality in the manner with which things unfolded, none of the involved parties lodged a report with the police. 

And it is against this fact that the FUZ were pressing authorities to act and serve justice for the fringe Warriors forward. 

Chirinda, who has been training all along, will finally get a chance to play for his new club which have also been religiously paying him salaries. 

He might even get the opportunity to make his Ngezi Platinum debut against Herentals on Matchday 15. 

Until recently, Ngezi Platinum have been struggling for consistency with the goal-scoring part of the problem. Chirinda, who was the second-best goal scorer in the league last season with 12 goals, was particularly hired to provide goals for the Mhondoro miners who will also be representing the country in the CAF Champions League this year after winning the championship. 

He will be expected to complement last term’s Golden Boot winner Takunda Benhura, Claude Mapoka, Tinotenda Murasiranwa, and Moses Demera in getting goals for Takesure Chiragwi’s team.