EDITORIAL COMMENT: Revisit DeMbare, Chapungu match verdict

FOR two months, the domestic football fraternity waited for the Premier Soccer League to deliver the judgment for that match between Chapungu and Dynamos which ended prematurely at Ascot in Gweru when one of the goalposts collapsed under the weight of the host team’s goalkeeper.

Dynamos, the visiting side, were leading 4-0 when the freak incident happened and after several fruitless attempts by the City of Gweru officials, who own the stadium, to repair the damaged goalpost, the match was abandoned.

The PSL leaders then charged Chapungu, as the home team, with bringing football into disrepute for their failure to ensure that their home ground did not have replacement goalposts to ensure that the game would be completed.

This week, after what looked like an eternity, the PSL delivered their judgment and ordered that the match should proceed from the minute of its abandonment with the scores remaining as they were at the time.

This means the two clubs have to play about half an hour of football with Dynamos leading 4-0 at the time the match is restarted.

Of course, we have no problem with such a ruling because there are precedents.

The problem we have with the ruling is that it has come too late and when justice is delayed it is justice denied and the PSL might find themselves in more controversy, in trying to effect this flawed judgment, than the ugly drama which was created by the abandonment of that match in the first place.

Had the PSL Disciplinary Committee quickly sat and resolved this issue, let’s say a day or two after the incident, it would have been easy for the two teams to converge again and play the remaining minutes without any of the challenges that we now foresee.

In fact, the best way was to advise Dynamos back then to stay in Gweru overnight, while a resolution was being sought, and if the disciplinary committee’s leaders decided to have the two teams play the remainder of the match, the PSL would then have fixtured the game to be played the following day.

But they delayed for two months and then came up with a ruling which, right now, cannot be enforced given the changed circumstances in both the Dynamos and Chapungu camp.

Now, it doesn’t make sense because the composition of both the Dynamos and Chapungu sides has significantly changed since that match, with the transfer window which closed this week, allowing the two teams to make changes to their playing personnel.

It’s impossible now for either Dynamos or Chapungu to field the same players who were in action that day and any changes to the composition of the teams means that it ceases to be the same match that was abandoned that afternoon.

Injuries also mean that some of the players who featured in that match cannot be fielded in the replayed encounter and already Dynamos have seen their forward Quality Kangadze on the sidelines for a long time.

What we also find disturbing is that while Dynamos are not blameworthy here given they travelled to Gweru and fulfilled their fixture, as required by the PSL, why should they be burdened with more costs – as prescribed by the judgment – to foot another trip outside the capital for the match?

They were not at fault for the goalpost that collapsed because, as the visiting side, it wasn’t their prerogative to ensure that the stadium was in the right shape to host such a match.

That is why they were not charged by the disciplinary committee but for the same committee to then prescribe a flawed solution where Dynamos have to incur extra costs for the fulfilment of the replayed match, when the Glamour Boys were not at fault, is outrageously unfair.

It was Chapungu who were charged, probably rightly so as the hosts, and reading this judgment it appears the Gweru side were found not guilty of any offence while their rivals, who were not charged, are the ones who have to pay a bigger price for all this.

Something just doesn’t add up here and we have to say that we disagree with the way the PSL have tried to resolve this issue because they have created a bigger problem than the one that was confronting them.

The easier way was to just award Dynamos the three points, with the Glamour Boys keeping their four-goal margin because it was greater than the 3-0 usually given to teams ruled to have won an abandoned match, without creating all the drama that we are now seeing.

The PSL get a share of money from gate receipts and sponsorship of the league and we want to know what this money is meant for if it can’t be used to organise such a game without a club like Dynamos, who are without blame here, being punished twice?

Maybe, ZIFA should intervene and sort this mess because the league has proved incapable of resolving it.

 

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