High Court rules Edzai offside… Fidza says ‘he is finished’

ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa yesterday said Edzai Kasinauyo’s fate has now been sealed after the High Court ruled that his application, to have his suspension from the Association’s leadership, was not urgent.

The former Zimbabwe international has already been expelled from the ZIFA Board for taking the Association to Court which the football controlling body says is a violation of the statutes governing the game. Kasinauyo is now a sitting duck and his expulsion will now be sealed by the ZIFA Congress later this month.

Justice Matanda-Moyo ruled that Kasinauyo’s urgent chamber application was not urgent and Chiyangwa said that was the end of the road for the former Zimbabwe international.

“That’s it for this guy, he is finished, he took matters into his hands and thought that the courts were the best way to sort out football issues, which is in contravention of the rules and regulations governing our game, but even there his case has no merit for the time being because it’s no urgent,” said Chiyangwa.

“The High Court ruling is a victory for ZIFA and everything that football represents in this country because in this game we have our own courts which deal with issues that come up now and again and for someone who is supposed to be a leader to ignore those rules and regulations is a shame.

“But we are happy that his case will be sorted out by Congress, without us worrying about what is happening in the High Court, and we are confident that the Councillors will see all the things that he has violated and put him in the right position.

“We told him that he was set to go before a disciplinary committee and you would think that, as a leader who should respect the rules and regulations of our game, he should have had the patience to let due process take its course and, if he wasn’t happy with the ruling, he would have lodged an appeal.

“But he appears to be in a hurry to hide something but even the High Court has just told him that your case isn’t urgent here and, as far as we are concerned, that’s the end for him.”

Chiyangwa said Kasinauyo would also be barred from practicing as a football agent. “We don’t want to see him in football and he will not be allowed to deal with our players, representing them as their agent because he doesn’t belong to our family anymore,” said Chiyangwa.

“He crossed the line and he has been trying, at every turn, to try and arm-twist us but I think he knows that we are not people who are easily intimidated and we are here to serve football and not for football to serve us.

“We are here to take the game forward and we don’t want people who are there to distract us and the events of the past few weeks have shown us that this guy wasn’t there to help us improve our football.

“He was there for something else and we are happy that we found out, very, very early, that he didn’t belong to our team and that is why we are moving on without him and I’m sure that the Congress will confirm that.”

Kasinuayo was caught up in the Limpopogate match-fixing scandal.

Meanwhile, authorities in South Africa have postponed the hearings into Limpopogate until next week.

Two weeks ago, the South African PSL sent out a press release stating that eight officials and players had been charged on match-fixing allegations and the matter was going to be heard on Wednesday.

But PSL media and broadcasting manager Luxolo September says the case has now been postponed. “The case is postponed to 6 April and I have nothing to say other than that,” September told KickOff.com.

On the PSL statement released two weeks ago the League said: “As part of the ongoing investigation into allegations of match-fixing, the Premier Soccer League has filed charges against eight football officials and football players relating to contravention of the NSL Rule 53.1, 53.2 and 53.2.10.

“The eight officials and players will appear before the PSL Disciplinary Committee on 30 March 2016 at 18h00.

“Due to the sensitive nature of the allegations and investigation, the PSL is withholding the names of the individuals concerned to ensure that the process runs without prejudice to the rights of the respondents.

“The PSL will, however, give detailed information after the PSL Disciplinary Committee has released its findings.” — Sports Reporter/Kick-Off