|
In a sudden development, Caf is barring Zimbabwe’s Premier League Champions Caps United from featuring Joseph Kamwendo in the early stages of the Champions League which gets underway this weekend because of late submission of clearance.
Caps team manager Willard Manyengavana said on Monday that his team is very disappointed with Caf for refusing his team to use Kamwendo.
“They (Caf) just want to frustrate us, we registered Kamwendo at the very beginning and we don’t know why they want to make a fuss about the clearance.
“The fact that we registered him in good time and that his clearance followed later on was enough. Joseph is in our plans for Sunday’s game against a a Lesotho side and we will persuade Caf to let him play,” said Manyengavana.
Kamwendo himself said he is keeping his fingers crossed that he should be allowed to play in the continental showcase.
“I am hoping that things will work out because the Champions League is a shopping window for European clubs and who knows I could be lucky.
“The other thing is that the season here will only kick off mid-March and I can’t just be sitting idle up to that time,” said Kamwendo who added that he is settling down well at his new club with the help of his homeboy Haji Tambala.
“Haji is helping me settle down, we share the same flat at the Livingstonia Avenues and being a homeboy, he is like a brother to me,” said the teenage midfield maestro.
And in a dramatic development, Caps have said they are suspicious of former Bakili Bullets captain Peter ‘Mjojo’ Mponda’s conduct.
Mponda only trained with the Green Machine once on Thursday and returned home the following day.
“We are very suspicious of Peter. He arrived here last Monday and had a rest on Tuesday. On Wednesday all the players went for check-up and Peter went with them too.
“Then he trained on Thursday and in the evening he told us that he was going back to see his sick father, we only hope he is telling the truth because we have heard he is interested to join another team in Malawi. All we want from him is to make a decision on whether he will join us or not period,” said Manyengavana.
He said Mponda has been playing hide-and-seek for the past few months on where his heart is.
“We offered him a contract and he was happy but he hasn’t yet put pen to paper. Our worry is that he has not been playing competitive soccer for the past couple of months and we are worried on the level of his fitness,” said Manyengavana.
Mponda could not be reached for his comment.
|
