HIGHLANDERS management has given in to a section of club supporters’ plans to hold a fundraising function at the team’s sports club on Sunday which coincides with Bosso’s Premier League tie against ZPC Kariba at Barbourfields Stadium.
Some Highlanders supporters have decided to skip the Sunday match because they are not amused with how the team was punished after its abandoned Chibuku Super Cup quarterfinal match against Simba Bhora on September 22.
The club was fined US$6 000 for crowd disturbances that resulted in the match being abandoned.
Instead of attending the Sunday match, the supporters will be at the club house, where they will pay the same money as gate charges to fundraise towards payment of the fine.
The hearing for the matter was held on Wednesday in Harare and the Bulawayo giants said to have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they stand to lose the match on a 3-0 scoreline and will be banned from playing in the tournament next year, a ruling which cannot be appealed.
Highlanders chief executive officer Sihlangu Dlodlo said the club had cleared the Sunday event at the club house.
“I come from a marketing background and in marketing, the basic principle is that products compete for customers,” he said.
“We have a group of Highlanders supporters who are organising an event which coincides with an event organised by the Premier Soccer League (PSL).
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“For us Highlanders, we support both events. We will participate in both events and we will advertise for both events where the customer vote remains to be seen.”
Dlodlo dismissed assertions that the event was a boycott of the match as some fans have espoused.
“If it was a boycott in its true sense, they [the fans] would have asked Highlanders not to pay the US$6 000, but these people are saying: ‘Let us pay. Let us work within the PSL regulations. Whether the PSL is correct or not, let’s work within the confines of their rules and regulations.’ So they are helping us to pay,” he said, adding that those organising the event at the clubhouse have been asked to prepare adequately for the function.
“Even we, as Highlanders, we are trying to make sure that there is minimal destruction of any sort and there is minimal hijacking of this programme. I cannot sit here and say there is no risk. Risk is always there,” he said.
Dlodlo reiterated that the club house event had been cleared by the club and when asked if they had been cleared by the police, the club boss said: “That is for the people that are organising the event.”
