HIGHLANDERS club secretary Morgen “Gazza” Dube has appealed to the supporters to attend the side’s last home match against Yadah at Barbourfields Stadium.
The Bulawayo giants fans boycotted their home match against ZPC Kariba a few weeks ago, but attended a fund-raising event at the team’s club house, which was well subscribed and raised funds to pay for the club’s fine.
On Sunday, a sizeable number of fans watched Highlanders clobber Green Fuel 4-0 at Emagumeni.
After thumping Green Fuel on Sunday, Highlanders are off to Mutare, where they take on Bikita Minerals today before travelling to Hwange and then rounding off the season with a tie against Yadah.
The organisers of the boycott are protesting against the Premier Soccer League and match officials following the ill-fated Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final tie against Simba Bhora at Wadzanayi Stadium on September 22, which ended prematurely after the latter were awarded what looked like a dubious penalty.
The referee of the day and his assistant were later suspended by the Zifa Referees Committee, but Highlanders lost that match and were fined heavily by the Premier Soccer League, a ruling which did not go down well with the club's fans.
During the first boycott, the fundraiser organisers said they did not want the Premier Soccer League to benefit from the gatetakings.
Dube yesterday said the fans’ message has been heard by the responsible authorities.
“One moment, we talk of the fundraising and the next, the boycott. I don’t know if there are two platforms, one for the fund-raising and the other for the boycott,” he said.
“But I have been speaking of a fund-raising which I am aware of and what I can say is that the club has received these funds coming from the fund-raisings.
“However, Highlanders as a team, a club, would want our fans to come to Barbourfields on our last home match. We believe that other than fund-raising, they wanted to put a statement across. We respect their position and I am sure that statement has, indeed, been heard.”
Added Dube: “We encourage the fans to then shift back to the stadium. It is not in our powers, but we are encouraging and asking our fans to come back. Come and watch your team again. I am sure the message that you wanted to put across has been heard.
“We are appealing to our fans to say we don’t want to end the season on our own. We want you to see what your team is doing at the moment.
“We appeal to them to come in their numbers to our next home match. I believe you have achieved whatever you wanted to achieve. We want everyone associated with Highlanders to be at that match.”
He, however, said as a club they had no control over the fans and the club’s constitution allows them to fund-raise for the club
“The club has been very clear from the onset. We have been fulfilling our fixtures accordingly and never encouraged anyone not to come and watch us play. We have control over the team, but not the fans,” Dube said.
“We have won our two games in question and we remain focused on the remaining fixtures. We take every match seriously and hope to finish the season strongly.
“We control the team and our constitution allows our fans to mobilise resources for their team in the manner they want. The executive runs the team from resources from partners, sponsors and fans.”