Chronicle (Zimbabwe)

Khama brace stuns Zambia Vision threaten match boycott

- Ricky Zililo

Nakamba f o r Butholezwe Ncube deep into added time.

The Afcon qualifiers will resume in August next year with the Warriors setting up a date against Algeria in back to back matches in which The Desert Foxes will be at home first before coming to Zimbabwe for the return leg a week later. The Warriors then travel to Botswana for the return leg during the weekend of October 5-11 and then wrap up their campaign with a home tie against Zambia.

SOUTHERN Region Division One Soccer League championsh­ip hopefuls, FC Talen Vision, have said their final game of the season against Makomo hangs in the balance and are adamant that Bulawayo City violated rules and regulation­s by fielding suspended players.

Vision, second on the table with 61 points from 27 games, yesterday said they “strongly” believe rules and regulation­s relating to player suspension­s were flouted.

Writing on their official Facebook page, Vision said: “Our away match to Makomo in Hwange is in doubt. The yellow cards allegation­s are yet to be resolved. We strongly believe rules and regulation­s of the league were violated. This may have an effect on the promotion race and even relegation.” The message was written a day after Zifa Southern Region told Vision that the allegation­s which they had raised against City were unfounded.

Vision accused title rivals City of fielding “suspended” players who included defender Zephaniah Ngodzo, midfielder­s Innocent Kutsanzira and Thabani Goredema in some league matches.

Vision want Zifa Southern Region to grant them access to referees’ reports for games which will “point out” that City used players that were supposed to serve yellow cards suspension­s.

The Zifa Southern Region board met last week after undertakin­g an audit of yellow cards and communicat­ed to Vision that their allegation­s were unfounded.

Fiso Siziba, a Zifa Southern Region board member said they are not reading much into Vision’s threat as they haven’t been officially told that the club intends not to travel to Hwange.

“As far as we are concerned our fixtures end this weekend,” said Siziba.

“We updated them (Talen Vision) after we had checked records that no player who had been suspended played. All the players that were suspended served their suspension­s and suspension letters are there.

Vision are basing their argument on the 2010 Rules and Regulation­s of the League which makes it mandatory for teams to automatica­lly suspend a player who would have accumulate­d three yellow cards. However, the same rules, according to Section 16.1, clearly state that any complaints must be submitted within seven working days from the date of the offence.— @ZililoR.

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