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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
HARARE City chairman Leslie Gwindi faces an effective two-year ban from football should he fail to meet the tough conditions set for him by a Zifa disciplinary committee in Harare last night. Gwindi was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute following his public utterances in which he allegedly denigrated Premier Soccer League sponsors Delta Beverages’ sponsorship package to the top-flight body.
The firebrand former Dynamos and PSL secretary-general was handed a five-year ban after being convicted by the Zifa disciplinary committee chaired by former magistrate Andrew Musengezi .
Gwindi, however, had parts of the sentence set aside for various conditions which the Sunshine Boys’ chairman would have to meet.
The disciplinary committee whose other members include former referee Wilfred Mukuna and lawyers Wilbert Mandinde, Musekiwa Mbanje and Watson Muchengeti ruled that one year would be suspended on condition that Gwindi pays a fine of US$6 000 within a fortnight of the delivery of the judgment.
Another one year will also be set aside on condition that Gwindi publicly apologises to Zifa, the PSL and the league’s flagship sponsors.
Zifa lawyer Ralph Maganga said last night that the committee had also set aside three years on condition that Gwindi is not found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute in the next five years.
This means Gwindi could be suspended for an effective two years in the event that he fails to meet the conditions set by the disciplinary committee inside the next two weeks.
Gwindi might also not need to pay the fine if he successfully appeals against both conviction and sentence.
Part of the full judgment which Maganga said would be made available today reads:
Respondent is suspended from football administration in any capacity for five years of which one year is suspended on condition that respondent pays a fine of US$6 000 within a fortnight of this decision.
A further one year is suspended on condition that the respondent publishes an apology to Zifa, the PSL and the league sponsors which apology shall be published in two mass circulating newspapers within a fortnight of this decision. A cutting of the two adverts shall be forwarded to the complainant within three days of publication.
The remaining three years are wholly suspended for five years on condition that during that time respondent is not found guilty by a competent court of any conduct likely to bring the game into disrepute,’’ the committee said.
Gwindi faced charges of contravening Section 4.1©, 4.2 (f) and 4.3 of the Zifa rules and regulations which deal with “misconduct, betting, bribery, bad language and conduct likely to bring the game into disrepute.”
The charges arose from the comments attributed to the Harare City chairman during his tour of Bulawayo in March last year.
Apart from allegedly denigrating Zifa, the PSL and Delta Beverages, Gwindi also faced charges of insulting former Warriors coach Klaus Dieter Pagels, who had a brief flirtation with the senior national team, in the final months of his three-year tour of duty in Zimbabwe.
Pagels had come to the country on a government-to-government agreement between Germany and Zimbabwe and worked as Zifa’s technical adviser through the Olympic Solidarity fund.
In their charge sheet Zifa stated that:
On March 8, 2013, at the Bulawayo Press Club meeting at Bulawayo Rainbow hotel, Leslie Gwindi unlawfully and with intent to damage the reputation of the Zimbabwe Football Association board, in particular, and Zimbabwe football, in general, committed an act of misconduct likely to bring the game into disrepute by using bad language and insulting the Premier Soccer League sponsors Delta Beverages (Castle Lager brand), the Zimbabwe senior national team coach Mr Pagels and the Minister of Education, Sport Arts and Culture Senator David Coltart.
Zifa were also infuriated at comments attributed to Gwindi during his address to the Press Club and charged that the sentiments were designed at disturbing the tranquillity that was prevailing in the game.
Despite convicting and sentencing Gwindi, Zifa would need to overhaul the manner in which they handle football judicial matters given that it has taken them nearly a year to dispose of this matter.
People like Pagels and Coltart, who were allegedly insulted in what led to the decision to charge the veteran football administrator, are no longer in their respective portfolios.
Pagels has since relocated to his native Germany while Coltart’s term in government ended just before the harmonised elections in July last year.
Efforts to contact Gwindi were fruitless when the story broke out last night and, in the event that the Harare City chairman doesn’t appeal against the conviction and fine or doesn’t meet the conditions set by the mother body’s disciplinary committee, he could be thrown out of football for the second time in the past 15 years.
Gwindi was banned by the Zifa leadership, under Leo Mugabe, in 1999 for bringing football into disrepute when he was the then secretary-general of the Premier Soccer League with the ban being endorsed by world football governing body Fifa.
But Gwindi was given a reprieve, which opened a window for him to return to the game and he plunged into the battle for the Zifa presidency where he lost out, in a landslide defeat, to Cuthbert Dube.
Gwindi retraced his steps back to club administration, something that he had started as part of the Dynamos leadership that guided the Glamour Boys into the final of the Champions League in 1998, when he was appointed chairman of Harare City.
He enjoyed considerable success, in his first year in charge of the club, and transformed the Sunshine City Boys into a side that competed strongly for the league championship and had the title in their hands, with just one game left in the campaign, only to falter in their final tie against CAPS United.
Gwindi has been reported to be one of the people eyeing the Zifa presidency, at the elections set for next month, but with his latest conviction, he is now unlikely to battle for that post unless he overturns it on appeal.
Online Reporter