Shabanie handed $10 000 fine, Harare City awarded points

AS had largely been expected, ambitious Harare City have moved into second position on the Castle Lager Premiership Soccer League table after they were awarded three points from their match against Shabanie Mine earlier this month.

The Sunshine Boys were yesterday awarded three points from the game that ended prematurely in the 81st minute following crowd trouble at Maglas on 12 May.

Shabanie Mine were convicted of failing to control their fans and causing the abandonment of the game as Harare City were leading 3-1.

In a judgment released yesterday, the Chinda Boys were slapped with a $10 000 fine of which $2 000 was suspended for the rest of the season on condition the miners are not convicted of a similar offence during this season.

Part of the same verdict also awarded the match to Harare City on a 3-0 scoreline.

Don Moyo chaired the committee that sat with Brighton Mudzamiri and Vusi Vuma as members of the hearing committee while Shabanie Mine were represented by Pethias Shoko and the complainant was the league, represented by administration manager Cuthbert Mutandwa.

During the hearing, the disciplinary committee produced evidence from the referee Sambulo Dube's report that trouble started in the 80th minute when assistant referee Ephias Mkombe flagged for an offside goal by Shabanie.

"This did not go down well with the home team fans who started pelting the second assistant referee with missiles (beer cans, plastic water bottles and stones), I then stopped the match for eleven minutes to allow the police details to bring order and sanity and to assure the security.

"The match resumed after the police assured me that it was safe to do so but barely a minute played after the resumption, the fans started throwing the missiles this time targeted at Harare City goalkeeper who had to scurry to the middle of the pitch for safety.

"I had to stop the match again for five minutes. Even the intervention of the Shabanie Mine team management did not help things as they were also pelted with missiles.

"After ascertaining that the situation was no longer safe for a football match to continue, I then called off the match after 81 minutes of play.

"The home team was also locked in their dressing room as angry fans bayed for their blood.

"We left the stadium at 1810 hours under police escort," read part of the report by Dube.

The disciplinary committee said there was overwhelming evidence that fans threw missiles although Shabanie had argued that Dube had made a lot of questionable decisions.

Moyo's committee said violence in any form should not be tolerated at a football match and that there were better ways or airing grievances than hooliganism.