The Sunday News
Simba Dube, Sports Reporter
THE Bulawayo Social Soccer League has been rocked by divisions with blame directed to the league’s executive led by Phathisani Khanye amid allegations of dictatorial tendencies.
Khanye, alongside the league secretary-general Anderson Sibanda and league director J D Dube, in cahoots with fixtures secretary, who also doubles up as BSSL spokesperson, are allegedly behind the discord through their alleged “iron fist’’ type of management.
Things came to head recently when four BSSL sides who questioned their management style called a meeting of all the disgruntled teams, where they resolved to form a rival league were suspended. The four teams, ironically the founding teams of the oldest social soccer league in the country, namely Congo Chiefs, Ndola Stars, Zulu Chiefs and Wembley were reportedly put on ice for the remainder of the season for saying “enough is enough”.
A source from one of the affected teams who preferred anonymity singled out the fixtures secretary as the troublemaker citing an instance where he fixtured Zulu Chiefs to play five consecutive away games.
“We somehow suspect that the fixtures secretary and his colleagues are protecting certain teams as they do not consider the concerns we raise. Zulu Chiefs were forced to play five away games consecutively. That impacted negatively in their pocket as teams in this league foot their own travel expenses. This is not feasible in this hard economic climate and in a league where teams only drive satisfaction through participation rather than monetary gain. However, whenever we speak out about such unfairness we are labelled rebels,” he said.
The suspension letters handed to the four teams state that for the remaining nine games teams fixtured against them will be awarded maximum points. Another official from another affected team accused the executive committee of running the league using an “archaic” constitution, which gives the committee powers to banish anyone who questions their system of governance.
“They rule using a 1992 constitution which doesn’t even address most of the happenings in the league. There is no section in the constitution which points out banning a team. You become their enemy by coming up with a suggestion and they threaten to suspend anyone who questions their rule,” he said.
However, Edson Sibanda, defended the recent move by the executive to punish “erring’’ clubs pointing out that it was meant to warn all the social league affiliates to respect the constitution. BSSL is a community owned league which comprises two groups of 20 teams which does not accommodate any competitive player or any player above the age of 28.
