adminSenior Sports Reporter
LOCAL football clubs have been warned against summarily terminating their players’ contracts ahead of the closure of the second transfer-window next Wednesday. There has been little movement of players during the window although clubs have been openly indicating that the hunt is still on for new blood in their line-ups and that means offloading players unless those clubs would have registered less than 30 players at the beginning of the season.
Giants Highlanders and Dynamos are still hunting for players with Bosso said to be eyeing Master Masitara, Chicken Inn’s Tendai Ndoro as well as How Mine’s Simba Sithole and Osborne Mukuradare of Harare City.
Dynamos on the other hand are eyeing Ndoro, Mukuradare and South African league rejects Oscar Machapa and Tafadzwa Rusike who are believed to be at the Harare side.
Both clubs registered 30 players and that means some of the registered players have to be offloaded to maintain the Premier Soccer League quota of 30 players.
The Footballers Union of Zimbabwe has said it will not hesitate to take clubs that flout regulations to the Labour Court on behalf of the players.
“We will definitely take legal action against clubs that infringe on player contracts. It’s a normal trend in our game that clubs tend to snub players at the last minute and if such things happen, we will seek recourse at the Labour Court,” said FUZ secretary-general Paul Gundani.
He said they have always called for a football solution in all disputes but that has not materialised because of Zifa’s bad attitude and non-commitment to suggestions. “FUZ has written numerous letters to Zifa seeking to establish a Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) so that we manage disputes in a football manner but Zifa has not been forthcoming,” said Gundani.
Fifa statutes are clear that all its associations should have DRCs to resolve disputes.
Gundani said because there is no such platform to solve football disputes, his organisation had no option but to engage the Labour Court.
He said Zifa sometimes insists that such disputes should be taken to the Players’ Status Committee but a case of illegal termination of contract was more of a labour issue.
“Players have also come second best when their cases are taken to the Players’ Status Committee. A case still fresh is that of Aaron Katebe and Hwange. The player paid $1 000 for his case to be heard and after winning, Hwange was never punished yet Aaron lost his money. The club should have been punished and the player refunded his money,” said Gundani.
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