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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

FC TALEN Vision have reportedly raised Zifa head office to intervene and have Southern Region Division One Soccer League games stopped until they are presented with match reports for some Bulawayo City matches.

Vision are alleging that title rivals, Bulawayo City, used “suspended” players, who include Zephaniah Ngodzo, Innocent Kutsanzira, Thabani Goredema and Thabo Lunga for some matches.

Vision, who led the race for the better part of the season before being dethroned by City with five matches left, are second on the table with 61 points from 28 games and trail the table toppers by three points.

The Golden Boys, as Vision are affectionately known as, are seeking to score points via the “boardroom” and get promoted in the event that City are found guilty.

Zifa Southern Region have said delaying the crowning of the regional champions by a week is meant to clear the backlog and have all games ending once next weekend.

“It’s true Talen Vision wrote to the head office and ours was to forward the letter there. We won’t discuss the subject of the letter but at the same time, it’s not true that the top two teams were not fixtured because of the letter they wrote. We want to clear the backlog,” said Fiso Siziba, a member of the Zifa Southern Region board.

Vision, who were once fingered for match fixing before ZPC Hwange withdrew the case will pray for City who need a point to secure the topflight ticket to falter against Arenel Movers.

City are adamant that they never used suspended players, with records showing that Ngodzo and Kutsanzira served their suspensions when they missed their game against Bosso 90, a fixture which came after City had played CIWU. Zifa notified City that Ngodzo and Kutsanzira were suspended in a letter dated August 29.

Goredema also served his three yellow cards suspension when he missed the game against Makomo, having served two-match suspension for a red card against Toronto. For the red card, Goredema missed the Indlovu Iyanyathela and ZPC Hwange games.

Lunga watched from the terraces the home game against Binga Pirates, with Benson Phiri missing the Mainline encounter while Physwell Madhazi was left for their last away game against Mosi Rovers in Victoria Falls.

“As a club we never used any suspended players. Every time Zifa communicates that a certain player is suspended, you attach a team card for the match that follows and that player should not be on the team card. We didn’t select any suspended players and our focus is on winning our next game,” said Thandiwe Moyo, City FC spokesperson.

The Vision case presents Zifa with a headache as the national association has benefited from the club’s benevolence during the year, with the club assisting the FA during their Chan games played in Bulawayo. 

Fixtures

Today: Makomo v Indlovu Iyanyathela (Mpumalanga, 12PM), Casmyn v Ajax Hotspurs (Turk Mine, 3PM), Binga Pirates v Mainline (Binga, 3PM), ZPC Hwange v Bosso 90 (Ingagula, 12PM).