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Augustine Hwata Senior Sports Reporter
IT was a double blow for Dynamos chairman Kenny Mubaiwa yesterday when he lost in the elections for the Premier Soccer League chairmanship early in the day in Harare before his side was bundled out of the African Champions League campaign away in Kinshasa. Mubaiwa had deservedly shown bravery to challenge incumbent Twine Phiri for the post but lost as he garnered just three votes against 12. One club, ZPC Kariba, stayed away from the general meeting.
However, Mubaiwa said he was not going to bury his head in the sand because of the election defeat but will continue to work hard for the Glamour Boys who were booted out of Champions League by AS Vita of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa. DeMbare lost 1-0.
Mubaiwa strongly suspects that “a mafia” in the football distracted his campaign for the PSL top post by causing unrest at his club last week when Dynamos players boycotted training over unpaid allowances.
“Well, this defeat will give me time to sort out the problems at Dynamos as the chairman of the club,” said Mubaiwa.
Earlier in the day, Mubaiwa had hoped the club was going to give him a consolation from DRC but they tumbled out of the competition with speculation now high that coach Callisto Pasuwa could be facing the music.
The tall Harare businessman said his strategy of going to the respective clubs had appeared the best and he felt let down by the clubs that hoodwinked him. “The board of governors were the ones who were going to vote, like they did today and I moved around to them trying to sell my manifesto. I did my campaign across all the 15 teams and felt that there was no need to go public but to deal with clubs only.
“It’s also unfortunate that the media did not cover me as much as they did Phiri,” said Mubaiwa.
But Mubaiwa said the strike at his club could have contributed to his downfall yesterday.
“The problems at Dynamos during the week worked to the advantage of Phiri because I was concentrating on Dynamos issues.
“Maybe I would like to believe that there was mafia behind the unrest at our camp,” said Mubaiwa.
Dynamos have won three league championships under the leadership of Mubaiwa and had until last week been a stable club in terms of player unrest of late. The Harare giants are one of the few clubs in the league with a sponsor after partnering bankers BancABC.
Online Reporter