The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
HIGHLANDERS will not stand in any player’s way if they are approached by a club seeking their services.
Club chairman Kenneth Mhlophe said while they were ambitious to win the league title, they would not scuttle any move that comes up for a player.
He said rumours that they were preventing goalkeeper, Ariel Sibanda from joining Mozambican side, Clube Ferroviario were not true as they had not received any official request from the club. He said it would be folly for the club to just release players without any official requests being made.
“How can we refuse to let him go when there has not been a request either from the player or the club that is said to be seeking his services?” queried Mhlophe.
“We do not stand in the way of players as long as everything is being done above board. We don’t know where all this is coming from but we are ready to entertain any team that comes seeking any player,” added Mhlophe.
A football administrator who declined to be identified said it was unfortunate players were being hoodwinked by agents to seek clearances from their teams and cancel their contracts in order to move to foreign clubs that don’t want to pay transfer fees.
“There is an emerging worrying trend where clubs want to wait for a player’s contract to lapse, then sign him as a free agent when they should simply negotiate with clubs and pay transfer fees. Agents could also be fueling this as they will get their ‘cut’ but the clubs don’t get anything with the receiving club not paying transfer fees.
“If a team is genuine, they would approach the club and make an offer for the player. Players heading to such clubs that want to cut corners could find themselves in a fix when the clubs struggle to pay them promised salaries, otherwise if a team is run properly why won’t they want to pay transfer fees,” he said.
The official added if it was true that Ferroviario engaged Sibanda or his agent and offered him US$3000 salary then they are guilty of tapping, according to Fifa rules, as they can only talk to him after consulting Highlanders on the player’s availability as he has a running contract with the club.
