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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor—
PREMIER Soccer League chief executive Kenny Ndebele is worried by the controversies characterising the transfer market and has warned clubs against engaging in unscrupulous deals with players and some agents that could land them in trouble and bring the game into disrepute. Ndebele said yesterday he had been observing with concern the manner in which some clubs have been handling their player acquisitions, which has already sparked some wrangles.

The PSL chief executive also expressed surprise on why the top teams were not using the league’s offices as a centre for verification on the status of players.

Local football has notoriously been stalked by ownership wrangles each time the transfer window opens especially the first window period of the year with players, clubs and agents often trading accusations in disputes related to contracts.

Some top clubs including champions Dynamos have also cast an amateurish approach in the manner in which they have handled some of their player transfer moves with the Harare giants also caught in the web of confusion over the status of players such as defender Godknows Murwira of Shabanie Mine, CAPS United’s Dominic Chungwa and gangly ZPC Kariba defender Obey Mwerahari.

Bulawayo giants Highlanders have also not been spared either with confusion surrounding the status of some of the players they had sought to offload including veteran midfielder Mthulisi Maphosa who they hauled for a disciplinary hearing despite claiming they had fired him.

It is the PSL’s concern that the wrangles over contracts and the status of players negatively impact on the image of the league that is trying to cast a professional outlook and makes the domestic game a laughing stock in an era where Fifa introduced the transfer matching system which has a database of each player’s history.

Zifa have an officer at their secretariat — Timothy Mazhindu — specially trained by Fifa to handle the new Transfer Matching System.

Ndebele is also surprised at the apparent lack of communication and effort between the top flight clubs “to just even check on the status of players’’.

“The normal procedure should be for clubs to approach a players’ current team and they are also free to verify with the league on the issue of player contracts because we have all that information.

“There is no harm in a club checking with a fellow club to clarify. It is not a crime for a club executive to contact his counterpart and establish the status of player they would be interested in. They sit side by side in meetings and they could use that opportunity to check and verify certain facts.

“Even if a player approaches a club with the intention of joining them, it is prudent on that club to check with the team where he is coming from on his status.

“It is laid down in the rules that even those that are out of contract would still need to be cleared by the club they are leaving,’’ Ndebele said.

The PSL chief executive also issued a stern warning to players to act professionally and honestly in their bid to move teams during the off-season break.

“Players should not make themselves available cheaply and illegally and then when they find themselves in trouble they run around and want to involve the Footballers Union and I think Paul Gundani (FUZ secretary-general) has previously spoken about this.

“The grass will always look greener on the their side, but at times one finds that two or three months down the road it is not as green as he thought and tries to find his way back.

“So if we get a report of a club, or agent who is illegally approaching players they will be dealt with.

“The procedures are well laid out and there is really no need of having problems with regards the status of players, it is just that the problem we have is that of some agents who mislead players and try and circumvent the procedures,’’ Ndebele said.

Relegated Shabanie have insisted that all their players are still contracted to them with only midfielder Wellington Shangiwa who moved to Zvishavane neighbours FC Platinum the only player who was out of contract.

There appears to have been a flurry of activity with some teams trying to grab players from the asbestos miners and other financially troubled teams.

Premiership runners-up ZPC Kariba were two weeks ago forced to issue a statement clarifying that the bulk of players who lost the championship to Dynamos on the last day were still contracted to the electricity men and had been retained.

This was after reports that linked such players like key defender and Soccer Star of the Year Dennis Dauda with a move away from the club.

Dauda is currently in Europe on a trial stint at Azerbaijani club FC Gabala, a move, which his club, however claimed was done without their blessings.

ZPC Kariba officials claimed they had only learnt through media reports that the player was having trials outside the country after Dauda featured in training with Gabala who are on a mid-season winter break camp in Antalya, Turkey.

The league runners-up have already lost goalkeeper Tonderayi Mateyaunga to DeMbare and are currently involved in talks to retain those players whose contracts had run out with veteran forward Limited Chikafa understood to have already agreed on a year extension.

There are some clubs, however such as Harare City, Chicken Inn and FC Platinum who have stayed away from controversy by conducting their transfers in a more transparent manner.