Triangle in player theft storm

By Sikhumbuzo Moyo

Rising star forward Pasca Manhanga is at the centre of an ownership wrangle pitting his current side Triangle and Tsholotsho Football Club.

Tsholotsho Football Club claim the player – who bamboozled Highlanders captain Innocent Mapuranga when Bosso played Triangle in the Mbada Cup quarter-finals at Barbourfields – has a three-year running contract with them.

The deal is set to expire at the end of the year.

Tsholotsho also claim that Manhanga, a member of the locally-based Warriors set up – was never cleared to play for Triangle and have produced evidence to back their claim.

According to documents in possession of Chronicle Sport, Manhanga signed a contract with Tsholotsho FC then in Division Two on January 22, 2011. The club undertook to pay a signing on fee of $250 and a monthly allowance of $50 as well as some winning bonuses, the documents show.

However, Triangle United coach Gishon Ntini has rubbished the claims by Tsholotsho accusing the side of “making noise” about Manhanga because he played well against Highlanders.

“Pasca is from Mutare… he grew up in Mutare and played in Mutare. Because he played well against Bosso you now claim him,” he said.

The outspoken Ntini said Manhanga had been playing for them for the past two years and if indeed he was contracted to Tsholotsho why had they been quiet all along?

“They think the Lowveld is made up of sugar cane farmers only, no, there are clever people like Ntini. If they want Pasca they should come to Triangle and we will sell him to them not to make wild claims,” said Ntini.

Tsholotsho chairman, Mlamuli Phiri, had a different version of events.

“We tried to engage Triangle United over the issue because we did not want to jeopardise the boy’s career but those guys were very arrogant. They would tell us off saying we were a rural team and after a while they would not even answer our calls,” said Phiri.

He said Triangle were still in the Eastern Region Division One league then and after incessant inquiries they were resigned to the fate of losing the player.

“This boy was seen by our coach Lizwe Sweswe during the 2010 Zimbabwe National Youth Games while playing for his province, Manicaland. He played for us in 2011 and at the end of the season we had our end of year awards that saw him voted our best player of the season. He then went home for the holidays and that was the last we saw of him,” said Phiri.

Phiri said following the promotion of Triangle to the elite league this year, they again made an effort to engage Triangle but to no avail until they approached the PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele who advised them to write to Zifa.

“We wrote to Zifa and copied the letter to Ndebele but up to now we have received no response,” he said.

The letter is also in possession of Chronicle Sport.

Asked how they registered a contracted player without clearance from his previous club as per football statutes, Zifa Eastern Region administrator, Tedious Machawira made a stunning claim that Manhanga was a Mutare United player and Tsholotsho FC did not get clearance from his former team Mutare United.

However, Mutare United had long disbanded at the time the player went to Tsholotsho, rendering whatever contract he might have had null and void.

Said Machawira: “I never knew that he was a Tsholotsho player when we registered him here. What I know is that the boy had a contract with Mutare United who cleared him to play for Triangle United”.

Sweswe though, refuted claims that Manhanga, who is on the FC Platinum and Highlanders radars, had any contract with a team.

“Pasca was born in 1991 and had no contract whatsoever. I have no problem with him playing for Triangle or any team for that matter but things must be done properly not the way these Triangle people treated us, especially their coach Ntini. I tried to talk to him as coaches so that we resolve this issue amicably but he was so rude to the extent of threatening me. I nevertheless told him that his arrogance will one day come back to haunt him,” said Sweswe.

Sweswe said at one time Ntini claimed that he (Ntini) had spoken to Manhanga’s uncle who gave him the go-ahead to register the player.

Triangle now risk losing points for all the games that Manhanga played in and could be relegated. The Chronicle