MmegiSport has been made aware that just over five foreign players are yet to receive their permits as the league season hit the first quarter. The most affected teams are Extension Gunners and Chadibe North FC who are yet to have a return on their off-season foreign players' investment. Chadibe had enlisted the services of the likes of the well-travelled Morris Ruzivo, who is formally with Security Systems and Samuel Phiri. As of this week, Chadibe still missed three foreign players as they wait for the permits and head coach, Rapelang 'Raizor' Tsatsilebe, said the club had also had trouble even registering some of the local players. "All the three foreign players are not registered and we also have two locals whose clearances came very late. So we are thin in terms of depth and in terms of width because we do not have the privilege of calling people from the bench. Now we have to use what we have," said Tsatsilebe last Sunday. Gunners' assistant coach, Moseki 'Proper' Monnaanoka said the club's technical team remains in the dark on why the foreign players are yet to receive their registration thus far.
The Peleng Boys made four foreign recruits in the past transfer window and apart from Patrick Kaunda, they are yet to don the famous black and white. The trio is centre half, Tonderai Nyakuba and the attacking duo of Moses Sondashi and George Simbayambaya. "I think that is a managerial issue because as part of the technical team, I am not in a position to answer. I do not know and it is not clear what is delaying the process to register the foreign players, maybe the management would be in a better position to answer those questions," said Monnaanoka following the 4-1 defeat against Township Rollers on Wednesday. MmegiSport has, however, been reliably informed the two clubs had not followed the necessary steps in bidding for the players' registration. The source very close to the process said a number of clubs have applied for a waiver but Chadibe and Gunners had not.
"The waiver allows you to use the players whilst the registration is under review. It allows the registration office to complete it, the cross-checking process whilst it also allows the clubs to use the players. It is not a dire process as eventually the registration would be completed as long all the documents are provided," said the informant. This publication is further informed that Gunners had initially reached the player registration quota and were asked to reduce it. As per the rules, a single club has 25 senior players slots, five reserved for foreign players whilst there is also an additional five slots for Under-20 players.
