Vision threaten match boycott

By Ricky Zililo

SOUTHERN Region Division One Soccer League championship hopefuls, FC Talen Vision, have said their final game of the season against Makomo hangs in the balance and are adamant that Bulawayo City violated rules and regulations by fielding suspended players.

Vision, second on the table with 61 points from 27 games, yesterday said they “strongly” believe rules and regulations relating to player suspensions were flouted.

Writing on their official Facebook page, Vision said: “Our away match to Makomo in Hwange is in doubt. The yellow cards allegations are yet to be resolved. We strongly believe rules and regulations of the league were violated. This may have an effect on the promotion race and even relegation.”

The message was written a day after Zifa Southern Region told Vision that the allegations which they had raised against City were unfounded.

Vision accused title rivals City of fielding “suspended” players who included defender Zephaniah Ngodzo, midfielders Innocent Kutsanzira and Thabani Goredema in some league matches.

Vision want Zifa Southern Region to grant them access to referees’ reports for games which will “point out” that City used players that were supposed to serve yellow cards suspensions.

The Zifa Southern Region board met last week after undertaking an audit of yellow cards and communicated to Vision that their allegations were unfounded.

Fiso Siziba, a Zifa Southern Region board member said they are not reading much into Vision’s threat as they haven’t been officially told that the club intends not to travel to Hwange.

“As far as we are concerned our fixtures end this weekend,” said Siziba.

“We updated them (Talen Vision) after we had checked records that no player who had been suspended played. All the players that were suspended served their suspensions and suspension letters are there.

Vision are basing their argument on the 2010 Rules and Regulations of the League which makes it mandatory for teams to automatically suspend a player who would have accumulated three yellow cards. However, the same rules, according to Section 16.1, clearly state that any complaints must be submitted within seven working days from the date of the offence. The Chronicle