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signed by four relegated teams Kiglon, Zimbabwe Saints, Masvingo United and Shooting Stars, in a new twist to the relegation jigsaw.
The four clubs wrote to Zifa protesting against their relegation saying the playing field was uneven.
They base their argument on the fact that Zifa chose to have international referees handle the Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-finals and final.
Zifa chief executive officer, Jonathan Mashingaidze said yesterday they had since responded to the petition although the clubs had not followed the correct channel.
“I can confirm that we have responded to the petition. We have sent it to the PSL and the chief executive officer, Kennedy Ndebele will have it by tomorrow. The clubs should have, however, gone through the league. We do not deal with clubs directly,” he said.
The clubs raised a number of issues and what we would like them to clarify are the games that they are disputing, the dates, which teams they were playing against, the venue and how much money was paid and to who,” said Mashingaidze.
The Zifa CEO said they were anxious to know who were involved in the match-fixing and they would be dealt with according to the Fifa statutes.
“We know that they sent their petition outside the correct protocol but we want to establish the truth behind the allegations. We have set up a commission of inquiry that will look into the allegations,” he said.
Mashingaidze said they had set up the commission of inquiry which will look at not only the petition but into all allegations of match-fixing.
“We had the committee that looked into the Asiagate scandal and now we have set up a new committee. They will investigate all the allegations that are brought to us as long as the clubs have the evidence,” he said.
Mashingaidze said they would release the names of the people in the committee today.
“The committee will talk to all the people involved, the referees, match commissioners, players and officials. We are not only looking at the Central Region but we will be looking at all the regions as well,” he said.
Mashingaidze said they had received a number of complaints about match fixing from other regions.
“There have been reports that we got and we simply cannot ignore them. Those that are found guilty will face the full wrath of the law and the Fifa statutes as well. The sanctions will range from fines, expulsion or banning,” he said.
Mashingaidze said they were faced with the prospects of the sport going back into the woods when no one wanted to be involved with soccer.
“We want to protect what we have now. We do not want a situation where people do not want to be involved with us because they are afraid of the match-fixing scandal. This could be much bigger than the Asiagate scandal because it is here on our home ground,” he said.
Match-fixing allegations have rocked local Zimbabwean leagues with the biggest scandal so far being in the Central Region and involving a number of top referees and administrators.