City dislodge DeMbare

Shabanie Mine this month.
The Sunshine Boys were yesterday awarded maximum points from the game that ended prematurely in the 81st minute following crowd trouble at Maglas on May 12.

Shabanie Mine were convicted of failing to control their fans and causing the abandonment of the game as Harare City were leading 3-1.

In a judgment released yesterday, the Chinda Boys were slapped with a US$10 000 fine of which US$2 000 was suspended for the rest of the season on condition the miners are not convicted of a similar offence during this season.

The game was awarded to City on a 3-0 scoreline.
Don Moyo chaired the committee that sat with Brighton Mudzamiri and Vusi Vuma as members.
Shabanie Mine were represented by Pethias Shoko and the complainant was the league, represented by administration manager Cuthbert Mutandwa.

During the hearing, the disciplinary committee produced evidence from the referee Sambulo Dube’s report that showed that trouble started in the 80th minute when assistant referee Ephias Mkombe flagged for off-side, a goal by Shabanie.

“This did not go down well with the home team fans who started pelting the second assistant referee with missiles (beer cans, plastic water bottles and stones), I then stopped the match for eleven minutes to allow the police details to bring order and sanity.

“The match resumed after the police assured me that it was safe to do so but barely a minute played after the resumption, the fans started throwing the missiles this time targeted at Harare City goalkeeper who had to scurry to the middle of the pitch for safety.

“I had to stop the match again for five minutes. Even the intervention of the Shabanie Mine team management did not help things as they were also pelted with missiles.

“After ascertaining that the situation was no longer safe for a football match to continue, I then called off the match after 81 minutes of play.

“The home team was also locked in their dressing room as angry fans bayed for their blood. We left the stadium at 1810 hours under police escort,” read part of the report by Dube.

The disciplinary committee said there was overwhelming evidence that fans threw missiles although Shabanie had argued that Dube had made a lot of questionable decisions.

Moyo’s committee said violence, in any form, should not be tolerated at a football match and that they were better ways of protesting than hooliganism.

Tomorrow Harare City will be hoping to collect another set of three points from Zvishavane when they meet FC Platinum who are now in fourth position on the log.

Meanwhile, the Dynamos board of directors said they were happy that the Glamour Boys had tied a deal with Adidas as their technical partner during the year they are celebrating their Golden Jubilee.

Board member Bernard Marriott Lusengo said the club should find ways of closing all the loopholes that had seen other people selling their own merchandise on the market without direct benefits going to the club.

“It means a lot for the club since we never had anything of this sort for some time. We hope this deal will go a long way to help our cash flow at the club,” said Lusengo.

“We have a patent and all those people using our log should be stopped by the law and very soon we will take sterner steps to stop the fake merchandise.”