Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE Fifa Transfer Matching System (TMS) can only register a player with one club, so how Juan Mutudza registered for FC Platinum while still a Herentals player as claimed by the Students could be a revelation of possible manipulation of the system in the country.
FC Platinum are now at risk of missing out on the Castle Lager Premiership title after Herentals accused them of using Mutudza in some of their games when he still has a contract with them. Herentals have approached Zimbabwe Football Association Player Status Committee in a bid to prove that FC Platinum used an ineligible player in Mutudza for the greater part of this season.
But who exactly is at fault for the chaos?
The Premier Soccer League have turned the questions to Zifa who are responsible for the registering of players.
For the greater part of yesterday the Zifa communications department was unreachable with Xolisani Gwesela, their acting head of secretariat not answering his mobile phone despite repeated efforts to secure a comment from the football mother body.
The Students argue Mutudza has a running contract with them until the end of this year. Somehow, they claim that he joined FC Platinum early this year without the approval of Herentals or Dynamos where he was on loan.
The player was loaned to Dynamos at the start of 2020 season for one year but the two Harare clubs came to an agreement that the midfielder be allowed to stay for a further year, given football had been washed away by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Herentals have stated that they engaged the Premier Soccer League eight months ago on the matter and got no joy. The fact that the player in question played means that he was issued a PSL issued Player’s Licence which confirms he was registered.
A football administrator who spoke to the publication did not rule out the possibility of FC Platinum being in trouble.
“According to the TMS a club can never register a player without the player’s former club accepting on the online platform. If the player had been registered on the TMS before joining FC Platinum, there is no way the system could have cleared the player to be registered by FC Platinum.
“They could be in hot soup if they fail to provide the evidence of who accepted their request for the player. In this instance both Dynamos and Herentals are pleading ignorance which could be a problem for FC Platinum or even an eye opener to the fact that the registration process can be manipulated,” he said.
In 2017, FC Platinum were cautioned against registering defender Lawrence Mhlanga by Chicken Inn who had a contract with the player. They were forced to side-line Mhlanga for the entire season.
Second-placed Dynamos, who suffered the pain and hurt of using an ineligible player in 2003, could end up as the beneficiary of the alleged failure by FC Platinum to be thorough in getting Mutudza on board while Chicken Inn could also have a chance of winning a second title in six years. -@innocentskizoe
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