Verdict still not out on Comets, Wonder case

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Friday August 2, 2013 00:00

 

The hearing was supposed to continue on Sunday, but was postponed thrice on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Wonder Sporting officials were told that the matter had been referred to the mother body, the Botswana Football Association (BFA).The secretary for the First Division South League, Sidney Magagane confirmed that the matter had been sent to the BFA Disciplinary Committee (DC) at Comets' request.  He said Comets insisted that the league committee could not form a quorum because they wanted to co-opt a delegate who was not from the region.  'Based on their request, we felt that there was nothing wrong in referring the case to the mother body,' he said.

Magagane said Comets also felt that their committee was an interested party in the matter. 'We believe in freedom of expression.  If one party feels that we are not competent to hear a matter, we refer it to the mother body.  We did not want one of the parties to felt to be hard done when we conclude the matter,' said Magagane.However, Jwaneng Comets official Kealeboga Ramogobya denied that they requested that the matter should be referred to the BFA.  'We have never requested them,' he denied.  He insisted that it was in fact the league committee, which declared that they were an interested party in the matter.  On Wednesday, the Jwaneng Comets official told Mmegi Sport that he was still waiting for a call from the committee to know whether case could be heard on that day.  'We are just to leave Jwaneng to come to Gaborone,' he said in a telephone interview.'We only questioned why they wanted to continue with this was case when they are conflicted,' he added. Wonder Sporting official, Solomon Mantswe, said they expected the hearing to continue this week.  'We endured several postponements and this is affecting our preparations.  We want to finish with this case,' said Mantswe.  'We want to concentrate on our preparations.  But with the case still pending, it has disrupted our preparations,' he added. 

The Jwaneng based side has claimed that Wonder Sporting who was also the First Division South league champions, fielded foreign players, Clarkson Dzimbiri, Farasai Nyamunamwendo and Mkhululi Moyo without proper work permits. The three players joined Wonder Sporting after Police XI were deregistered from the BFA.