Zimbabwe’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) has banned Dynamos Team Manager Richard Chihoro for allegedly sprinkling juju in the stadium before the team’s match.
Chihoro startled spectators when he stormed the stadium at Barbourfields Stadium on 18 March in Bulawayo before Dynamos played Hwange FC.
In a video that went viral earlier this week, Chihoro was seen on the pitch holding a bottle with an unknown water-like liquid at the goalpost.
Unfazed by the spectators anxiously waiting for kickoff, the Dynamos team manager then started sprinkling the liquid on the goal line from one post to the next. When the liquid was finished, he threw the bottle out of the pitch and took some unidentified substance from his pocked, which he began scattering again on the goal line.
Some fans in the stadium stared in amusement at this nonchalant display of superstition and voodoo. Football fans on the internet were shocked, grumbling that it is acts like these which affect the image of Zimbabwean football.
The Castle Lager Premier Soccer league (PSL) took note of the incident and have since banned the Dynamos Team manager and he will be appearing before its disciplinary committee to explain himself. In a statement released yesterday, the body said:
The Premier Soccer league has summoned Dynamos FC Team Manager, Richard Chihoro, to appear before the PSC Disciplinary Committee following acts of misconduct that took place at a Castle Lager PSL match between Dynamos FC and Hwange FC played at Barbourfield Stadium on Saturday, 18 March 2023.
Mr Chihoro will not be allowed anywhere near the team bus, changing rooms or to sit in the technical area during PSL matches until the matter has been finalised.
The PSL added that the disciplinary hearing will take place on Wednesday, 5 April 2023.