dyton mupawaenda
Ray Bande in Mutare
EASTERN Region Division One side Tenax FC are not happy with the boardroom decision to promote Bikita Minerals into the Premiership after the correctional services side had seemingly won the championship on the final day.
Tenax have since reached out to the Zifa Normalisation Committee as well as the Sports and Recreation Committee for possible intervention.
At the official conclusion of the season, Tenax had finished a point above Bikita Minerals after winning their game 6-1 at home while the lithium miners had been held to a 1-1 draw at Grayham.
However, Bikita Minerals were later promoted into the Castle Lager Premiership via a boardroom decision that awarded them maximum points from their final match of the season on the basis that Grayham had used an ineligible player.
Eastern Region Soccer League vice chairman Simba Wisdom said:
“We deliberated on the matter between Bikita Minerals and Graham FC on Saturday here in Mutare. As the outcome of the deliberations, we discovered that indeed Graham FC used an ineligible player. The player in question is Calvin Tinashe Chiwere, who was using Munyaradzi Machipisa’s licence.
“He is a 32-year old player who was using a 22-year old player’s license. There was overwhelming evidence. Therefore, according to Rule 13.1 Paragraph B it says if a player uses an ineligible player and the issue is raised during inspection the team using the ineligible player gets three points docked from them, a fine is imposed while the opponents gets maximum points.
“This is the reason we gave Bikita Minerals three points. Technically, Bikita Minerals now have 60 points and Tenax have 59. Bikita Minerals are the 2023 Eastern Region champions. “We have also suspended Chiwere for six months. In the same hearing, Bikita Minerals was fine US$2 000 for assaulting referees. Like I said earlier on, Grayham FC have three points docked. The match is given to Bikita Minerals on a three nil scoreline. Grayham was also given a US$1 000 fine.”
However, Tenax chairman Stefani Masina said:
“We are really not happy with the Eastern Region Soccer League decision to award maximum points to Bikita Minerals and their subsequent promotion of the club into the Premiership. We are of the opinion that this was a pre-planned thing meant to disadvantage us. We have reached out to the SRC as well as the (Zifa) Normalisation Committee for assistance on the matter.
“To us it is clear that the parties involved connived to snatch Premiership pro-motion from us. There a number of irregularities that we raised in our letter of complaint. In fact, we were surprised to learn from the media when the ESRL leader Davison Muchena urged clubs to acquaint themselves with laws of the game when the same league is presiding over a breach of the same laws. We just want football to be the winner.”
In their letter of complaint, one of the major concerns Tenax raised relates to why the match between Bikita Minerals and Grayham was allowed to proceed after one of the clubs had complained about the use of an illegible player.
To support their argument, Tenax cited an incident sometime in July when they complained about the intended use of two ineligible players by Renco Mine FC.
Consultations were instantly made over the phone with ERSL officials, who quickly checked with the ZIFA player data base and the two players were barred from participating. This was not the case with the Bikita Minerals v Grayham FC match yet there were ZIFA ERSL officials, who were in attendance having been deployed to ensure smooth flow of proceedings on this final round of fixtures of the season.
Online Reporter