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Kudzai Bare

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
GWERU-based airmen, Chapungu United, are likely to be slapped with a fine for the hostile reception they gave relegation threatened Bulawayo City ahead of their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League encounter at Ascot Stadium on Sunday.

Bulawayo City lodged a complaint with the match commissioner after their team was denied access to the stadium for almost an hour and their players only warmed up for about 10 minutes.

A City official, Bhekumusa Dlodlo, said they arrived at the stadium gate at 1:20PM before the home team Chapungu arrived and were only let in at 2PM, but were denied access to the field, as Chapungu officials claimed keys for the gate between the dressing rooms and the field had been misplaced.

“We were subjected to some archaic way of frustrating visiting teams by Chapungu and we reported the matter to the match commissioner. We were made to wait for 40 minutes at the main gate when Chapungu officials told us that keys for the gate, which their team used to go into the stadium, were misplaced. They only opened the gate after we called PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele and another PSL official notifying them about what they were doing,” said Dloldlo.

“When we got to the dressing rooms, they again denied us access to the field for warm up. They opened the gate connecting the dressing room and the field after 2:15PM. All this was happening in the absence of match officials, who only arrived at 2:20PM.

“Our warm-up was cut short as the match officials insisted that time for inspection was up, meaning we literally had less than 15 minutes warm-up, while our opponents had a proper warm-up. We’re not cry babies, but just highlighting the ill-treatment we received at Chapungu,” he said.

The Ascot incident happened two days after the PSL had conducted a security and football management workshop in Harare.

Objectives of the workshop included improving knowledge of PSL officers and developing an appreciation of the latest trends in sport safety, security and management as well as improving gate controls and access to stadia.

PSL spokesperson Kudzai Bare said: “It’s quite unfortunate that such an incident occurred when we just held a workshop. However, I cannot comment much because we are waiting to get details in terms of reports from both clubs and that of the match officials.”

City went on to lose the game 1-0, and in the process sunk into the relegation zone. They are third from the bottom with 14 points from 18 games; two points behind Chapungu, who occupy the last relegation slot.

@ZililoR