adminthe ruling and upheld an earlier ruling that had given the game to the ambitious Harare side.
The outcome means Highfield are now sharing the same number of points with Dstv Rangers and Mwana Africa who are sitting on second and third positions respectively with 40 points as the race for the championship remains open.
The dispute between the two teams erupted when Cossy Rules failed to show up for their Friday fixture at Rufaro in July with the Kadoma-based side claiming that it was a working day and some of their players would not be released by their employers for the game.
But after being walked over following their no show, Cossy Rules had appealed against the decision and had cited the league as the first respondents while Highfield were the second respondents.
However the board noted that the league had the power to alter fixtures and could not charged for their decision to schedule the game on a Friday.
The judgment ordered that:
- First respondent has authority to change fixtures in a season and result is hereby confirmed
- Decision of the first respondent to allow fixture between the complainant and second respondent to be rescheduled to a Friday is hereby allowed to stand
- Decision of first respondent regarding the outcome of the fixture between the complainant and second respondent shall be allowed to stand.
However, Cossy Rules president, Cosmas Daka has challenged the outcome of the judgement and said they are going to appeal.
“The decision is not fair. I think we will go for the next stage of appealing. The facts are clear, we notified them that we could not play on a Friday and we told them that we wouold play on a Wednesday. Their constitution states that they have the power to schedule a game on any day but we are saying they should be fair when exercising their powers and consider both sides.
“We told them that our players are going to work and we could not fulfil the fixture but they insisted that the match be played on a Friday,” said Daka.
Meanwhile the Northern Region League will take a break this weekend to allow Black Rhinos to take part in the military games to be held in Mozambique.
Board member fixtures, Martin Kweza said because Rhinos are in the championship race, the matches have to be played at the same time for fairness hence their decision to postpone this week’s games.
Online Reporter