Ex-Blackpool director Salifu’s body arrives

Glen Forest Cemetery tomorrow at 2pm.
Family spokesman, Simeon Jamanda, told The Herald yesterday that Salifu’s body would leave Nyaradzo funeral parlour at 4pm today and will be taken to the family home at 121 Vito Street in Mbare.
The body will then be taken to Salifu’s home at 70 Drew Road, Grange, Harare where it will lie in state tonight ahead of tomorrow’s burial. Jamanda said the business and football community in this country had lost a leader who made a huge contribution.
“Joel was different and his death is a very big loss,” said Jamanda.
Jamanda was part of the management team that led Blackpool to success in the 1994 Castle Cup and then battled all the way to the semi-finals of the old African Cup of Cup Winners tournament the following year.
Jamanda, who is now the Motor Action chief of protocol, said they had made a request to the PSL for their game against Monomotapa, scheduled for tomorrow at Rufaro, to be moved to Sunday. “Our request was premised on the fact that Joel lay the foundation for Motor Action through Blackpool and he merely passed the baton to Eric Rosen who continued with the project,’ said Jamanda.
“We felt, as Motor Action, we should pay our respects and we wanted our players to also go to the funeral in recognition of the part that Joel played in this team.
“People forget that when Blackpool became Motor Action, some of the players simply moved to the Mighty Bulls and players like Marlon Jani, who had a special relationship with Joel, have been badly affected.
“Surely, it’s cruel to force them to play on Saturday at a time when the man who helped them start their journey in football is being buried across town and we feel the PSL, through their chief executive, are being insensitive to our plight by refusing to let us move the game to Sunday.
“We had agreed with Monomotapa, who are the home team, to have the game moved to Sunday and, interestingly, there is no game on Sunday in Harare, but the PSL have said ‘No’ because, probably, they don’t know what Joel contributed to this league.
“We would have expected them to order a minute of silence at all matches this weekend, but they haven’t done so.”