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Tadious Manyepo, Harare Bureau
THE Zifa Appeals Committee were yesterday finalising the modalities to have the Herentals case heard, as soon as possible, after the hearing failed to take off as scheduled last Thursday.

The Students are appealing against a decision by the PSL disciplinary committee to throw them out of the top-flight league.

They were accused of allegedly violating the league rules by taking football matters to the High Court.

These accusations arose after the Students had been denied legal representation by the PSL disciplinary committee during the match-fixing hearing earlier this year.

They were allegedly to have manipulated a league match against Black Rhinos, which they won 3-0 last year.

However, the Zifa Appeals Board threw out their conviction, and sentence, saying the evidence against them wasn’t solid enough.

They also said the decision by the PSL disciplinary committee to deny them legal representation was a violation of their rights.

But, no sooner had they been cleared were Herentals thrown out of the league for having taken their case to court.

The club were not allowed to register their players by March 31, like other teams by the PSL, as they were deemed not to be part of the league’s cast this season.

However, the Students, again, appealed and sources said the matter should have been heard last week.

However, said the sources, the PSL could not commit their legal representatives to the hearing.

The Stead Kachere-led Zifa Appeals Board were by late yesterday afternoon expected to deliberate on the way forward.

“This case is becoming a circus. The Premier Soccer League last week said they couldn’t avail any representative because their employees needed to get tested for Covid-19 first,” said the sources.

“Lawyers have resumed their duties and it is their lawyer, not their employees or members, who are supposed to attend the hearing.

“Communication is done through e-mail and I am told they haven’t submitted anything yet.

“The hearing of the matter between Zifa and their vice-president Gift Banda went ahead this week.

“That means the excuse being given by the PSL doesn’t hold any water.”

Kachere yesterday said no date for the hearing has been set as yet.

“At the moment, there is no date set but, as an Appeals Committee, we will be sitting to deliberate on the way forward,” he said.