Chipuwa’s Mozambique deal collapses

On and off Flames goalkeeper Richard Chipuwa’s dream for a career abroad collapsed after Clube dos Desportos de Chingale failed to register him with the Mozambique Football Federation.

Disclosing the development in an interview with The Nation on Sunday, Chingale’s vice-president Steven Kausendo said the club has, in the meantime, released Chipuwa so he can rejoin Be Forward Wanderers.

“We have decided to send him back to his Malawian club so that he can continue playing to maintain his form. We hope to take him back next season,” he said.

Kausendo said Chipuwa’s one-year contract was still valid but he would not get a salary if he rejoins Wanderers.

“His contract is still valid but it won’t be active if he is playing for another club,” he said.

This is the second time the club has failed to register Chipuwa, due to lack of transfer backing documents.

For the past six months, the goalkeeper featured in only a single friendly match as he hoped to be registered in the now closed mid-year Mozambique transfer window which ran from May 16 to June 13.

Meanwhile, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) transfer matching systems (TMS) manager Casper Jangale said it was impossible for the Mozambican football authorities to register Chipuwa because Wanderers had not submitted the third party ownership (TPO) documents.

“The TPO is a document which proves that a club owns a player. It was Chingale which was supposed to be enquiring [about] the papers from Wanderers,” he said. “If the deal has collapsed it is entirely their fault.”

Wanderers team manager Steve Madeira distanced his club from the transfer confusion, saying: “We provided all the transfer documentation. I think they should give other reasons for their failure to register him.”

He confirmed that Chipuwa will be returning to the Lali Lubani Road outfit:

“Richard phoned me on Sunday that he is on his way back. We will welcome him because he is our own.”

The goalkeeper signed for Chingale as a free agent, but later Wanderers protested the move by producing contractual evidence to prove that they own the player until 2018.

The two parties agreed that the player will move to the Tete-based outfit on a six-month loan until this month with an option to sign permanently if he bought out his Wanderers contract.

In the meantime, Chipuwa’s agent Ken Giggs has said that they paid K800 000 to Wanderers.

“The player told me that he owed the Nomads that amount, which if we paid, we would be free to clinch a permanent deal. But now this whole registration failure means that the deal is as good as over,” he said.

He further said Chipuwa is disappointed with the collapsed deal as the transfer to Chingale was financially rewarding.

Giggs claimed that the goalminder pocketed K5.5 million as signing on fee at Chingale and his salary was four times what he was getting at Wanderers.