NRSL SET UP ETHICS COMMITTEE

Abel Ndooka

Zimpapers Sports Hub

THE Northern Region Soccer League have moved to deal decisively with the cancer of match manipulation, setting up an Ethics Committee that will be tasked with handling allegations of corruption in Division One.

It was resolved at the NRSL’s annual meeting in Harare on Saturday that they establish the committee, which will be made up of lawyers, former referees and will be chaired by the region’s board member Hastings Makunda.

NRSL chairman Martin Kweza said they had seen it fit to appoint an Ethics Committee ahead of the start of the 2025 season as part of efforts to battle corrupt activities in the region.

Kweza said they were not amused by allegations, which have been raised in previous seasons about match-fixing, the bulk of which he added was unsubstantiated.

The NRSL boss said such claims, if not fully investigated and dealt with, had the threat of tarnishing the league’s image and scare away corporate partners.

“Going into the new season we have come up with an Ethics Committee which will work with the ZIFA Ethics Committee to deal with issues of match-fixing and corruption if there are allegations brought forward.

“Last season there were cases reported but there was no tangible evidence for us to pursue some of the cases, so we decided that this season we should introduce an Ethics Committee which will deal with such issues.

“I will personally approach the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to ask them to come and train our Ethics Committee members before they start executing their duties.

“In addition, all teams that will play in our league are required to have an Ethics Officer who will be working and observing these cases when they go and play their matches, he will be preparing reports after games updating what he/she would have observed at different games,” he said.

Kweza is expecting another riveting season in the race for Premier Soccer League promotion, when the new term kicks off on the weekend of April 4-6.

However, there was a blight on the fixtures calendar before the season started with Centenary United from Mashonaland Central who had been promoted being barred from taking part after failing to pay their affiliation for the 2025 season.

“It is sad that we have expelled Centenary United after they failed to pay their 2025 affiliation.

“We had advised all the teams to pay their affiliation fees by 31 December 2024 and we extended the deadline to 28 February and still they failed to pay.

“As a league we had no choice but to expel them. For a team to be our member they should be fully paid up and we expect all the teams to have paid their affiliation before our games start,” added Kweza.