The ManicaPost
| ESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction. Mutare’s Castle Lager Premier Soccer League representatives, City Rovers tend to be their own worst enemies at times. |
Call it shooting oneself in the foot, if you will.
Fresh from a recent disappointing home outing in which they squandered and surrendered a 3-0 lead with barely 15 minutes to go and allow fellow strugglers Tsholotsho to snatch a 3-3 draw, the municipality outfit threw themselves in a difficult situation by using ineligible striker Kudakwashe Gurure in the following match against FC Platinum away at Mandava.
The forward was suspended for the tie and should have sat out of the encounter after accumulating three consecutive yellow cards.
He was cautioned in the games against Border Strikers, Chapungu and Tsholotsho, resulting in him picking up the one-game suspension.
While the matter is still pending before the PSL disciplinary committee, who, as a formality, asked the club to furnish them with an explanation, Gusha, as it stands, are set to lose points for that offence.
The system spells out clearly on what penalties such faults attract – offending clubs get three points docked, regardless of the outcome or result of the match in question.
Thus states the Premier Soccer League’s Rules and Regulations Standing Order 36.1.4: “The use of an unregistered/ineligible player in a league match, three points will be deducted and thrown away and a fine as set by the League from time to time.”
Now, that is costly for poor City Rovers!
Gusha picked only a point from that match, but are now set to lose two more to make up for the three.
And it could possibly come with a fine, too!
Not one of the best-funded sides around, the team is now set to bear the full brunt of the double-blow sanctions from the PSL whose two-pronged pinch will be felt by the club where it hurts most.
The PSL, according to their chief executive officer Kenny Ndebele, insist that they communicate through e-mail to the respective clubs affected by suspensions and also carbon-copy all the other clubs, and hence FC Platinum were in the know and thus lodged a complaint with the body.
Granted, Gurure is one of their key players, yes – following his purple patch in which he has been scoring vital goals for the relegation-fighting team which has also seen him shoot to be among the league’s top scorers – but he should have simply sat out that match and served his suspension.
But, first, how did the suspension of Gurure escape the attention of the entire club?
Just how did the club’s hierarchy miss it?
To have the coach, his assistants or even the team manager fail to pick out this anomaly with their own player surely boggles the mind of any serious club football administrator!
That was only tantamount to negligence on the club’s part.
Ignorance is no defence as the municipality outfit tried to justify and exonerate themselves by arguing that they were not aware of the suspension.
Surely, there has to be someone in the Gusha structures who monitors, keeps a close check on and always be alert so as to avoid such occurrences.
Because, you see, Dear Reader, if their opponents on the day, FC Platinum, sniffed out the irregularity, how the hell did Mutare City Rovers fail in the same regard?
Also, the player himself should have come clean and alerted the club that he was sitting on a suspension.
What was at stake for the club in that match was much bigger – a possible three points – than missing the services of a single player.
Now, that is a careless way of doing business.
A clumsy way of losing points especially for a team that is scavenging for and trying to put together some that may eventually prove enough in their quest to evade the chop.
Whoever that responsibility falls on, they slept on duty and cost the team dearly.
In any case, there is precedence, already, here.
Only two weeks ago, following his world-record signing for Manchester United, Paul Pogba missed his side’s first match of the campaign because he was carrying a suspension from Juventus, a penalty which spilled over from the Italian Cup campaign over bookings in the semi-finals and final against Inter Milan and AC Milan respectively.
Pogba’s suspension was from the previous season, from a previous league and from a different club, but was, nonetheless, carried over.
Manchester United took precaution and for them it was better to be safe than be sorry.
Now, Mutare City Rovers should have picked a cue from that.
Also, one of the world’s biggest football franchises, Real Madrid, suffered an almost similar fate when they were chucked out of Spain’s biggest cup competition, the Copa del Rey, after fielding Denis Cheryshev, scorer in the 3-1 victory over Cadiz, who had previously been booked three times in the same competition, and, therefore, earning him a one-game suspension, while on loan at Villarreal in the preceding season.
Even as Madrid president Florentino Perez frantically tried to fight their case, that could not save their blushes as they had two appeals rejected and the expulsion upheld.
Mutare City Rovers need to wise up on the administration side of the game so they spare themselves similar trouble in future.
The brighter side
It is, however, not all doom and gloom for Gusha as they have regularly been picking up points of late following a string of positive results.
They have not lost a match in their last six outings – winning two and drawing four, while picking 10 points from a possible 18.
Mutare City Rovers have to keep at it and maintain this momentum as it has blown some wind into their sail, which has seen them leapfrogging Tsholotsho in the lower reaches of the table.
They have to continue taking points from clubs around them – like they have done against Hwange, Chapungu and Tsholotsho.
Their coach Taku Shariwa, has vowed that they will stay up in the Premiership and is hoping for a rainbow at the end of what has been a stormy start for both him and the team in their maiden Premiership voyage.
It is also laudable that the team made up for the disappointment in their previous two games by sending the coal miners to the cleaners last weekend at Sakubva Stadium.
If they continue with this form and fine run, then they can salvage something at the end of the season.
It’s Game On, Play On!
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