adminlawyers representing Harare doctor Mordecai Sachikonye questioned the Zifa Asiagate report and demanded an immediate retraction and apology.
The lawyers, Mudambanuki and Associates, said Sachikonye, who is the CAPS United doctor, and has also served various national sides as team doctor, was unaware of the Asiagate scam and dragging his name into the scandal was unfortunate.
Sachikonye was listed in the Asiagate report as one of the active participants in the match-fixing scam.
He travelled as team doctor with the Young Warriors to China in 2008 and was with the Warriors during their trip to Malaysia in December 2009.
Yesterday his lawyers wrote to Zifa Vice-President Ndumiso Gumede, who led the probe into Asiagate, claiming that their client had been defamed by the report.
The list of those, fingered by Gumede’s committee, was published in The Herald on Tuesday.
“While your (Gumede) office can indeed be applauded for exposing the rot that had taken root and festered within the ranks of our local football leadership, we would like to express our concern regarding certain reports published in The Herald of Tuesday, the 12th of July, 2011, under eye-catching headlines . . . on the front and back pages,” read the letter from the lawyers.
“It is with regret that we have noted that our client’s name appears on a table, on the back page of The Herald in question, and he is named as an “Active” participant, having travelled with the team twice.
“We would like to point out, at this stage, that that table is far from accurate.”
The lawyers also questioned some of the findings by Gumede’s committee, in particular, where the investigating team concluded that:
“All personnel, in particular, the technical teams, were into it in a big way and they understood the rules of match-fixing very well and the benefits to them. It was no fluke that someone travelled more than once to those games.”
The lawyers said there was recklessness in reaching such a conclusion.
“Such comments are reckless and irresponsible in their generalisation and they necessarily imply that our client is guilty of these allegations of match-fixing, and that he benefited financially from it, but nothing could be further from the truth,” said Mudambanuki and Associates.
“There is so much generalisation in the articles that some people, like our client, who are professional and carried out their professional duties for little or no remuneration, are being implicated in scams that they were never involved in.
“On each occasion that our client travelled with the team, he did so as Team Doctor, and on national duty, having been called up by Zifa.
“He did not insert himself into the technical team, nor did he have any influence or input in his own selection. He also did not derive any special personal financial benefit therefrom.
“In fact, he used his own resources, to buy the required medications to cater for the entire traveling party and, on each occasion, obtained the go-ahead from the head of the Sports Medicine Association, Dr (Edward) Chagonda.”
The lawyers were also concerned about a conclusion, reached by Gumede’s committee, where the investigating team said:
“In most cases, all the travelling delegation, be they management, technical staff, players, media and hangers on knew what was happening and had high expectations on financial rewards with a few possible exceptions . . . “
That Sachikonye was not named, in the Asiagate report, as one of the exceptions, said the lawyers, was incriminatory on the part of their client.
“We have noted with concern again that our client is not named as one of the ‘few possible exceptions,’ which also necessarily paints our client in very bad light,” said the lawyers.
“Our client has been falsely accused of things that he never did and such accusations have been published in a national newspaper and, we believe, without proper verification on your part.
“Any reasonable person reading the paper can easily conclude that our client is guilty and he was involved in match-fixing for personal financial benefit, yet he is not guilty of match-fixing, and he certainly he did not benefit from it, nor was he, as team doctor, even aware that there were such scams happening.
“This is necessarily injurious and defamatory to our client’s good standing, name, fame and repute.
“The extent of the possible damage to our client because of these articles is quite staggering.
“We have instructions to demand, as we now do, that you immediately publish a retraction and an apology in the same national newspaper to clear our client’s name.
“If you fail to do so, we have instructions to institute legal proceedings against you and The Herald, and we will not hesitate to ask for punitive damages on our client’s behalf.”
The lawyers said their client was a senior and distinguished doctor.
“He is also a God-fearing family man of excellent standing and repute in society who has loved football since he was a young boy,” said the lawyers.
“By virtue of his affiliation to the Sports Medicine Association, he was on two occasions to travel with the national teams as the team doctor.
“He finds it surprising that it is now said that these matches were not sanctioned by Zifa and yet he was asked to bring his passport to the Zifa Office and was dropped off there, on both occasions, and taken to the airport on the Zifa bus.
“He did not benefit financially from those two games, except for the US$700 paid by Zifa to him when he went to Malaysia, as an allowance.
“He also travelled in his capacity as a team doctor, and as such, was not in any way part of, or privy, to any match-fixing that may have happened at any of the matches.”
Online Reporter