WANDERERS OFFICIAL DISAPPEARS WITH PLAYERS’ DOCUMENTS

MBABANE – A Manzini Wanderers official has thrown the operations of the club into disarray after disappearing with players registration documents a few days before the league game against Sea Birds on Sunday.

This resulted in the club honouring their first MTN Premier League game against Sea Birds with only 13 registered players on Sunday and they went on to lose the Manzini mini-derby 1-3 at Mavuso Sports Centre. The official known to this publication but cannot be revealed for now disappeared while the team was in the process of registering their squad for the 2021/ 22 season.

By yesterday afternoon, the team had not gotten hold of the official and they were due to report to the police by late afternoon. A source close to the matter confirmed that the disappearance of the official left the team in a chaotic situation ahead of the game on Sunday. Some of the players that were due for registration include Reagan Charles, Phathizwe Mabuza, Bandile Shabangu, Romario Dlamini and Mlungisi Vilakati among others. Other players come from regional teams.

Some of the players had to watch from the stands on Sunday as Sea Birds ran riot in the second half, scoring three goals. The source said the delay in registration of the players was caused by the team getting its club licence later in the week and they were due to register some of their players on Thursday and Friday but the official disappeared with the documentation on Wednesday. “The team is now trying to start afresh the registration process of the players while they are searching for the official,” said the source.

Wanderers Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mlungisi Ndzinisa confirmed that they had challenges when they were registering player last week and only 13 players were registered. He said they were dealing with the matter internally and hoped it would be sorted soon. “We are making other means to register the players and we hope the matter will be sorted out soon. It is an unfortunate incident that we had only 13 players for the first game but our fans must not panic as we are working on solving the problem,” he said.

Wanderers will play Mbabane Highlanders in their second fixture of the season. They are currently at the bottom of the log after the embarrassing 1-3 loss to Sea Birds. Wanderers Coach Nyanga Hlophe said he hoped that the situation would be sorted before the Mbabane Highlanders game.

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