MOZ club, Civil clash over Tanganyika deal
Mozambican club Costa do Sol has written Civil Sporting Club cancelling the transfer of striker Innocent Tanganyika and demanding a refund part payment of K3 million.
But Civil have said they will not pay back the money because Costa are acting “unprofessionally by coming up with false and lame excuses”.
In a letter—meant for Civil but wrongly addressed to Mafco— dated February 25 2018, signed by Do Sol general secretary Joao Paulo Nhabanga, which we have seen, Do Sol say they are pulling out of the deal because they have been facing challenges to secure international clearance for the player.
“Do Sol hereby….declare formally that it shall not proceed with the acquisition of the economic and federative rights of the player Innocent Tanganyika due to unresolved discrepancies, identified with the bureaucratic process presented to us by the Malawian [Football] Federation in regard to the player’s international documentation,” the letter reads in part.
The letter also asks for a refund of $4 000 (about K3 million) of the $5 000 (about K3.7 million) transfer fee which the club paid.
“We hereby, as per our telephone conversation, formalise the settlement of the total of amount to be returned to our club,” reads the letter in part.
In an interview yesterday, Nabanga contradicted himself on the reasons for cancelling the deal.
“The reason is simply that our foreign quota is full,” he said.
But asked that the letter indicates that they had difficulties to secure international clearance, he replied through WhatsApp: “We did not proceed because as a foreigner we cannot register him.”
Civil GS Ronald Chiwaula acknowledged receiving the letter, but argued that Costa do Sol’s argument does not make sense.
He, therefore, said they will not refund the transfer fee because all “we know is that we followed the necessary process to sell the player. Innocent [Tanganyika] is legally their player.”
Chiwaula said they have responded to the letter by asking them to loan out the player if their foreign quota is full.
“That is the general practice all over the world. We are surprised that Costa are demanding transfer fee reimbursement instead of loaning him out. In fact, if they want him to continue playing for Civil, they should write a loan clearance,”
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) transfer matching systems manager Casper Jangale said it was wrong for Costa to implicate the association in the matter.
“This issue is between Civil and Costa. We have not played any part in their differences,” he said.
Costa also said they were no longer interested in Tanganyika and instead asked Civil to replace him with midfielder Righteous Banda—who is now with Nyasa Big Bullets—a proposal that was turned down.
In another development, Civil have signed relegated Blantyre United midfielder Jiddy Mbandambanda and Mzuzu University (Mzuni) FC defender Timothy Silwimba as part of a drive to beef up their squad, Chiwaula confirmed.
The development comes after Civil laid off and sold some players in the ongoing transfer windows.