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Kenny Ndebele

Ngqabutho Moyo Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kenny Ndebele yesterday blasted Highlanders Football Club for failing to communicate through the proper channels about the Charles Sibanda Golden Boot saga.Sibanda scored 13 goals in the 2014 season and rightfully should have been awarded the top goalscorer’s award but ended up sharing it with Kuda Musharu of How Mine who scored a goal less.

Ndebele said Highlanders, who have been querying the issue of Sibanda’s goals tally since May, were unprofessional in handling the issue.

“The club was unprofessional, the channel they used to address the issue was wrong. They should have communicated with PSL about their inquiry and we could have dealt with the issue professionally,” he said.

But Ndumiso Gumede, the Highlanders chief executive officer, has previously insisted that the issue was brought to the league almost six months ago.

Records submitted by PSL to Highlanders tallied up to 12 while the player and the club were spot on with 13 that made Sibanda the top marksman for 2014 in a season Bosso appeared to get a lot of flak from the PSL.

Ndebele said the proper way of handling the issue was for Highlanders to send their match statistics to prove the error to them so that they could compare with the PSL records.

“Highlanders through their chairman Peter Dube in Mutare raised a concern on Sibanda’s goals after the Buffaloes game and that was rectified. We are failing to understand why they failed to do the same on this one particular error that not even them realised but the media,” he said.

Ndebele said when Highlanders were asked to produce their match report statistics usually made by the technical team, the Bulawayo giants failed to produce them.

“We tried to rectify the issue before this particular matter was taken to the press when we asked for their records on the matches that Sibanda had scored and they failed to produce the statistics.

“If they had done so I am sure the error could have been rectified, but instead they asked for a Buffaloes record for a single game, an error that had been rectified by the referees way back,” he said.

The secretariat, manager and coaches are expected to keep such statistics. “The coach and technical team of any club take down notes on the goals, cards and other match facts about the players. If they had produced those as requested, I am sure the error could have been corrected on time,” said Ndebele.

The media had for long given Sibanda a brace instead of a hattrick in the Buffaloes game.

Ndebele said the issue can still be rectified but through proper channels and perhaps Sibanda could smile all the way to the bank with an extra $1,500.

He shared $3,000 with Musharu for being joint top scorers.

“The club should use the proper channels to communicate or to fix channels not use the media, otherwise if the club produces enough evidence that the player has 13 goals and through the proper channels we will see who made the mistake between the referees or PSL and it will be corrected,” said Ndebele.