Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube, Zimpapers Sports Hub
HWANGE Football Club administrator Khumbulani Mbano says his club will not appeal against a decision in which the Anesu Saiti transfer to Bulawayo Chiefs was found to be above board but wants football lessons to be drawn from that.
Hwange and Nkayi United, which were in a fierce race for the title with eventual winners, Chiefs who were presented with the trophy on Sunday, said in the interests of the game they would let the case rest.
Saiti, a brilliant footballer whose talent appeared to be way above Division One, moved at the beginning of the year to Bulawayo City, signing a contract and papers on March 30.
Towards the opening of the second transfer window, Black Mambas who are his parent club recalled him from Bulawayo City. He did not play for the Police outfit (Mambas) and was immediately shipped to Bulawayo Chiefs, where he made his debut on July 5.
Nkayi and Hwange later protested that the move to have him play before the half way mark was illegal. The transfer window is rigid and is applied without taking note of how far leagues are.
Previously, the window has opened when teams would be at the halfway mark and that had seemed to set a precedent that Nkayi and Hwange wanted to ride on.
The Zifa Southern Region then took up the matter with their legal department and looked at all facts on hand and determined that all was above board.
Southern Region boss Lloyd Munhanga on Sunday confirmed that the matter had been resolved and went on to crown Bulawayo Chiefs champions.
“There is no case. Everything concerning the player’s registration was done above board. It was a simple matter of certain individuals misinterpreting our rules and regulations,” said Munhanga on Sunday.
In an interview from his Hwange base yesterday, Mbano said they would not be appealing but prayed that, going forward, local football must keep abreast with worldwide trends.
Mbano said according to Fifa rules, an offence was committed in the player’s transfer. The Hwange administrator said the move fell foul of what is called a “bridge transfer”.
Fifa says: “No club or player shall be involved in a bridge transfer.
It shall be presumed, unless established to the contrary, that if two consecutive transfers, national or international, of the same player occur within a period of 16 weeks, the parties (clubs and player) involved in those two transfers have participated in a bridge transfer.
“The Fifa Disciplinary Committee, in accordance with the Fifa Disciplinary Code, will impose sanctions on any party subject to the Fifa Statutes and Regulations involved in a bridge transfer.”
Mbano insisted though, that Saiti had moved to a third club within 16 weeks of committing to Bulawayo City.
He said his assertion is for the betterment of football and nothing against the champions Chiefs. He said they expected Zifa to call them to a hearing where they would have raised the “bridge” issue.
“At least if Zifa had asked for appeal fees, we would have paid and laid our case at a hearing.
“As a matter of fact, he moved to City on March 30, and having him switch allegiance on July 2 is within the stipulated 16 weeks, which should not have been allowed,” argued Mbano.
He said his club is now looking ahead and would most probably be looking at new players identified at a Matabeleland North schools tournament last week.
“The season is over for us, we head back to the drawing board and we will probably have an assessment of players identified at a tournament we organised recently,” said Mbano.
League spokesperson Blessing Mbwanda is happy that the season went without much hassle.
He said they could not respond to Hwange because the case was already under consideration after Nkayi had complained and no fees were forwarded.
“We would like to thank our clubs for delivering a near flawless season, which was very competitive from start to end,” said Mbwanda on the sidelines of the colourful Bulawayo Chiefs trophy presentation at Chiefs Village on Sunday.
He said there were many lessons learnt during the 2025 season but football had won at the end.
“Experience is the best teacher. We tried our best and we are committed to nothing but the best for the region,” said Mbwanda.
He cited the case of Ajax Cape Town of South Africa of 2018 where the late former Zimbabwe forward Tendai Ndoro threw the Cape Town side into hot soup after joining them to make it his third transfer of the season.
Ajax were relegated because Ndoro was not eligible.
In Ndoro’s case, he had played for three clubs in a season having started off Orlando Pirates, then moved to Al Failsaly of Saudi Arabia, later Ajax.
Last year, there was another case in the UK where Cameron Archer moved from Aston Villa from Sheffield United and then signed for Southampton within 16 weeks, which was deemed in breach of Fifa rules.
Such instances require special explanations for the transfer to escape the “bridge rule.”
