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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
Herentals FC owner Innocent Benza has penned an emotional letter baring his love for the game and expressing pain at what he claimed were attempts to exterminate his team.

This follows his team’s expulsion from the Premier Soccer League for taking football matters to court after being acquitted by the Zifa appeals committee over a match fixing conviction by the PSL disciplinary committee.

PSL rules and regulations are clear about the consequences of taking football matters to court.

Benza accused an unnamed third force for his team’s woes, saying it was out to destroy his club.

He says there’s nothing wrong with assisting Zifa in a time of need, but doesn’t tell us whether he accepts that taking football matters to court is in violation of the game’s statutes; the game he portrays to love so much in his open letter.

Instead Benza tells us of a third force, which he only seems to know. Was it the third force that made him take football matters to court?

His team claimed to have withdrawn the court case and pursue all football channels, although the PSL is adamant there has been no such notification.

It’s critical for Benza to know that whether they withdrew the case is neither here nor there.

There’s nowhere in the PSL statutes where it says a team or its representative will be sanctioned for failure to withdraw a dispute from the courts. Instead, the statutes are clear that taking football matters to court is an offence.

Even Zifa and Fifa have the same statutes. The world football governing body frowns at anyone who takes football disputes to court.

Herentals were charged with taking their dispute with the PSL to the High Court, an act which the club is not disputing.

It’s monumentally wrong for Benza to try and use emotional blackmail to win sympathy from Zimbabweans.

That he has done so much for football is beyond dispute, but that doesn’t grant one a licence to violate football statutes.

We’ve had football greats such as Kalusha Bwalya and Michel Platini, religious servants of the game whose contributions are unparalleled, whom football gave its back on when they transgressed.

We might not have concrete evidence from the initial bribery charge, but we all know that, by their own admission, they approached the High Court for redress.

It is, therefore, wrong and extremely irresponsible of Benza to seek public sympathy when his club is clearly in the wrong for taking football matters to court.

There is no third force against Herentals; the only problem is Herentals wanting to be allowed to break the rules because they financially and materially support Zifa.

Football must refuse to be emotionally abused.