Dynamos fined for stadium skirmishes

Mehluli Sibanda and Raymond Jaravaza
DYNAMOS Football Club have been fined US$4 000 while their team manager Richard Chihoro was slapped with a US$2 000 fine for disturbances which occurred when DeMbare played Bulawayo Chiefs in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League at Barbourfields Stadium in March this year.

The fines came after Dynamos protested a decision by referee Hardly Ndazi to award Chiefs a penalty. DeMbare fans threw missiles onto the pitch, head coach Tonderai Ndiraya, goalkeepers coach Gift Muzadzi, team Chihoro charged at the referee and his assistants in protest. After DeMbare had calmed down, Taimon Mvula, the Dynamos goalkeeper saved Obriel Chirinda’s penalty and the Glamour Boys went on to win the match 2-0.

“The club appeared before the Disciplinary Committee (DC) on 29 March 2022. Dynamos and their team manager were found guilty of disrupting normal proceedings of a match and fined $4000 and $2000 respectively,’’ said the Premier Soccer League in response to an inquiry from Sunday News.

Dynamos being fined comes at a time when DeMbare and their fierce rivals Highlanders face more sanctions from the PSL for crowd trouble when they met at Barbourfields last Sunday. The showdown between the country’s two most followed teams ended pre-maturely after Dynamos fans invaded the pitch and uprooted the Mpilo End goalpost to protest shortly after Highlanders had taken a 1-0 lead through Washington Navaya.

Bosso fans, who had caused a stoppage when they threw missiles onto the field of play following a horrendous tackle by Dynamos winger Bill Antonio which left Highlanders defender Andrew Tandi with a fractured right fibula also invaded the pitch to celebrate Navaya’s goal but quickly went back to the terraces leaving their Dynamos counterparts to cause all sorts of mayhem which eventually led to the abandonment of the match.

Meanwhile, the PSL board of governors is expected to consider suggestions that came out of a security workshop attended by different stakeholders when the league holds its annual general meeting on Friday.

The PSL held the indaba with the stakeholders to try and find solutions to incidents of crowd trouble that have been witnessed in recent weeks.

“We have an AGM on Friday so most of the suggestions that came out of the security workshop will be taken to the board for consideration. For now, they were just suggestions, they will be made public once they are approved by the board,’’ said PSL communications and media liaison officer Kudzai Bare.

Speaking on last Friday’s gathering, Bare said they invited security officers from clubs because the decision makers at clubs are already on the PSL board of governors.

“This workshop was consultative in nature. We invited security officers from the clubs because the decision makers are already on the board. We are taking up whatever they said to the decision makers. This workshop alone will not make things go away. From there, there will be further consultations,’’ she said.

Meanwhile, not a single hooligan has been charged from both sets of Dynamos and Highlanders fans that charged into the pitch last Sunday, our sister paper, B-Metro Sport has learnt. Scores of supporters from both teams breached security lines — for different reasons — and invaded the pitch. The magnitude of the violence shocked the football fraternity, forcing the PSL to suspend the league in the aftermath of the embarrassing scenes of hooliganism.

B-Metro Sport was last week informed that none of the hooligans had been brought to court to answer charges of public disorder. Even the fan who confronted a match official in public glare on the pitch leading to physical combat went away scot free after the match.

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed that no fans were arrested for the Barbourfields Stadium violence. Videos recorded at the stadium show Dynamos supporters uprooting a part of the goal post and tearing nets at the Mpilo end stand. A senior police officer told this publication that the officers on the day acted accordingly by avoiding head-on confrontations with the marauding crowd.

 

“Crowd control doesn’t always mean that the police have to engage in running battles with the people that are causing trouble. The officers obviously assessed the situation and decided that the use of force was not the best option in the interests of protecting lives and property.  The situation simmered down eventually and no one was injured as far as we know,” said the senior officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

However, in Europe and particularly England, fans that cause violence are brought before the court of law and also heavily punished by the football association, including lengthy bans from the stadia. — Follow on Twitter @Mdawini_29