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Takudzwa Chitsiga Harare Bureau
THE much-publicised match between Zimbabwe Soccer legends and All-Africa Stars turned into a farce when players from Zambia failed to get their allowances in Zvishavane on Friday. The event had seen the Zimbabwe Legends Trust pulling out amid some misunderstanding with ICCA Sports who were the organisers.

ICCA Sports had organised the event but it turned out they could not live up to their promise of giving local players $150 each for appearance fees they had promised and it was worse for the Zambians who had travelled all the way to Zvishavane for the match.

It took the intervention of former CAPS United centre striker George Nechironga and FC Platinum officials for one of the organisers Julius Chakupehwa not to be assaulted by some of the angry players from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Chakupehwa, who had promised the former players, mainly from Southern Region, allowances, saw himself in trouble as Dazzy Kapenya, Ronald Sibanda and their colleagues threatened to manhandle him.

The event was initially cancelled by Zifa who felt that the Legends Trust had withdrawn from the match and was no longer their baby.

And it took the intervention of FC Platinum chairman to fork out his money to see that the players from Zambia leave Zvishavane as some legends who had travelled from Harare had to pay for themselves.

The Zimbabwe Legends Trust had pulled out of the event with Eric Aisam, the Trust’s representative, making it clear that the memorandum of understanding between them and the organisers was not clear on several clauses.

Gibson Homela, the Southern Region representative, then decided to send some of the players from Bulawayo and they were given a rude awakening.

ICCA Sports, on the other hand, played down the drama, saying the players expected to sleep in Zvishavane which was out of their reach as they wanted to travel to Triangle for another match set for yesterday.

“We had some misunderstanding with Mufulila Wanderers as they didn’t want to travel to Triangle after Friday’s match and also the local legends demanded their appearance fees,” said Chakupehwa.

The matches saw Zimbabwe’s men legends team face Zambia Select as the women legends team played their Zambian counterparts while FC Platinum faced Zambian side Mufulila Wanderers in a game that saw Norman Mapeza being sent to the terraces after he insulted the referee.