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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

AMBITIOUS Division One outfit, Talen Vision, have been told to stop behaving like a football regulator, as only the Zifa Southern Region played that role.

Responding to a letter written by Talen Vision to the Zifa Southern Region executive committee led by Andrew Tapela demanding an independent yellow card verification, Zifa Southern Region administrator Augustine Ndlovu said Talen Vision must take note that the executive committee was the regulatory authority “and therefore cannot be regulated by its affiliate”.

Vision claim they have irrefutable evidence that Southern Region Division One winners Bulawayo City used suspended players in some league games in the just ended season.

“In your letter dated 4 November, you requested the office to verify the issue of yellow cards regarding certain players. That verification exercise was carried out and the outcome was made known to you on November 18, 2019. 

“If you were not happy with that outcome, the onus was on you to lodge a complaint in accordance with the 2010 Southern Region Rules and Regulations, in particular Article 16.1.1, provided you were still within the given time frame,” Ndlovu wrote to Vision on November 29.

He said as far as the region was concerned, the club did not lodge a complaint and neither did it seek the involvement of a judicial body to warrant the setting up of one.

“Instead you have and still continue to ask for the verification of records, which the office did. Please take note that the board is the regulatory authority and therefore cannot be regulated by its affiliates. 

“You claim to be in possession of overwhelming and irrefutable evidence, which unfortunately for reasons best known to you, was never availed to us or brought to our attention in the first instance. 

“It is, therefore, totally incorrect for you to suggest that these records were ignored when they were never brought before us,” Ndlovu said.

He also made it clear that Zifa Southern Region remains the sole custodian of all official records sent to clubs.

“Any other records not generated by us and not officially sent to any club will be viewed with strong suspicion. In conclusion, we reiterate our position that this matter has been dealt with and has been finalised.”