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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
CHAPUNGU have suspended assistant coach Clement Mugari with immediate effect over the utterances he made against FC Platinum at Mandava on Saturday.

Club chief executive Chris Mukotekwa said they were distancing themselves from Mugari’s claims that FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza was allegedly paying referees to influence results in his team’s favour.

“On behalf of the Commander Air Force of Zimbabwe, officers and Chapungu Football Club, I would like to inform our soccer-loving nation that as a club we have suspended our assistant coach Clement Mugari with immediate effect until further notice,” Mukotekwa said.

“As Chapungu Football Club, we were shocked with the allegations that were made by Mr Mugari at Mandava against Mr Mapeza. I would like to make it clear that Mr Mugari was airing his own views.

“As Chapungu Football Club, we stand guided by the Constitution of the land and believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We also respect the position that has been taken by the PSL over the matter and we will wait until they complete the due process before we can act on the way forward.”

Mukotekwa said the PSL have since written to the club to furnish them with more details and they will co-operate with the league’s leadership. Air Force Command Sports Officer, Washington Makurumidze, added that the assistant coach was expected to face the music with his employer for breaching their code of conduct. “As uniformed forces, we don’t condone such kind of behaviour as we are expected to exhibit high level of discipline at all the times. And in sport, emotions tend to overwhelm someone when they lose but we believe in true sportsmanship, you win some, you lose some and you get up and try again next time.

“A game of football is played over 90 minutes and you cannot really cry foul over one decision when you were supposed to have done well during entire match.

“We hope this will serve as a warning to everyone else associated with the club that you cannot act unprofessionally and expect to get away with it and we regret the whole incident which unnecessarily put us in bad light when in actual fact we are a good and disciplined side and our record in the league speaks for itself,” said Makurumidze.