adminnot to pay Asiagate fines at the beginning of last month.
This was said by the organisation’s secretary-general Paul Gundani in an interview yesterday.
The chairman of the players’ agents association Omega Sibanda has however urged players to make peace with Zifa.
“The players must get into talks with Zifa and find a way to settle their fines because it is their careers at risk, any other advice could be detrimental to their careers. Dialogue is important at this stage, confrontation might not be the best way forward,” said Sibanda.
Gundani said a group of 17 players met in Harare last month and resolved not to pay the fines. He said the players felt paying the fines was an admission of guilt and could affect their chances of landing contracts in Europe.
“They felt if they paid admission of guilty fines they would not be able to move to Europe because of their tainted names. The players then decided to fight their cases through FUZ and our world motherbody Fifpro who have undertaken to take the matter up with the Centre for Arbitration in Sport based in Switzerland,” said Gundani.
The former Ziscosteel and Warriors defender said as FUZ they were not happy that the players were not given an opportunity to give their side of the story. He said the Justice Ebrahim committee’s role was to investigate the allegations that had been made with a view of another committee conducting disciplinary hearings.
“After the Justice Ebrahim committee we expected the players to appear before a disciplinary committee. The procedure was wrong, Justice Ebrahim should not have spelt out the sentences, it is that process that we and the players are querying and Fifpro has said they will help us and take the matter up with the Centre for Arbitration in Sport. They could not investigate, prosecute and sentence,” said Gundani.
He said they were not imposing any position on the players.
“It is not us as FUZ who came up with that position, but it was after the meeting that the players felt paying fines was tantamount to an admission of guilty,” said Gundani.
He said those players that paid the fines had taken that decision on their own and there was nothing wrong with that.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter