Rollers slam rivals over witch hunt
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Thursday March 10, 2016 15:49
“There is a witch-hunt. All these protests were planned. They wanted us to lose focus and to some extent they managed to win because we just lost to Gaborone United (GU) on Saturday,” Rollers spokesperson, Bafana Pheto said.
Pheto said they are relieved that the Botswana Premier League (BPL) disciplinary committee (DC) has cleared them of any wrong doing with regard to the registration of Nato. The DC ruled that Nato as a professional player and a free agent was registered properly.
“We are happy with the decision because we have always maintained that we followed all the right procedures in acquiring his signature. We submitted all the required papers when we registered him and they were all clean,” Pheto said.
He said the player was slightly affected by the whole issue, but the club managed to provide counselling.
“This is a relief because we can now use him. We have since realised that even when we have a game, our opponents are not only those on match day. We are fighting many enemies, but we are ready for that,” he added.
Gilport Lions' owner, Kelesitse Gilika said the BPL DC’s ruling will be discussed at the club’s board level. They will also talk to their legal team and see whether they appeal the ruling or not.
Lions had filed a protest challenging the eligibility of Nato to play against them last month. Nato made his debut for Rollers when they beat Lions 3-0 in Molepolole. Gilport Lions immediately filed a protest challenging his registration.
Their first contention was that the Botswana Football Association (BFA) chief executive officer (CEO), Kitso Kemoeng had released a circular in December saying no player should be registered outside the transfer window.
However, the DC ruled that the circular appears to be in conflict with the FIFA Statutes, which allow any free agent to sign even outside the transfer window. DC chairperson, Busang Manewe said the BFA, being a member of FIFA, cannot be seen to be violating FIFA regulations.
Manewe said they view the circular as just a reminder for the clubs about the dates in which the registration of players with the exception of free agents must be done.
Gilport had also argued that Nato was not among the list of transfers, which were released on February 1 after the closure of the window.
However, Manewe said Nato’s name could not be among that list since he registered outside the transfer window. Gilport in their submissions also argued that Nato’s registration should have passed through the Players’ Status Committee (PSC) or BFA.
The DC ruled that as a free agent who had his release letter and International Transfer Certificate (ITC), the BPL was right to register him without authorisation by the PSC as there was no dispute over his status.
“There were no issues or disputes regarding the status of the player which warranted the involvement of the Players’ Status Committee,” Manewe said.
He said Gilport Lions failed to demonstrate how the registration of Nato compromised the integrity of the competition as they alleged in their submissions.
Lions had also argued that there was suspicion of fraud since Nato’s registration stamp was backdated to January 31 although he registered days after that.
However, the DC ruled that there was nothing fraudulent about it since the system is said to be rejecting dates coming after the closure of the transfer window.
Manewe said neither Rollers nor BPL was to benefit from the backdating of the stamp and that it was solely done because the system rejected all transfers that took place after the window closed. Gilport have been given 10 days to appeal the ruling.