Ex-Warriors defender faces deportation from UK

Ex-Warriors defender faces deportation from UK

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By Mduduzi Mathuthu

FORMER Zimbabwe national soccer team defender Matambanashe Sibanda was facing deportation from Britain this week after being seized by immigration officials in the on-going campaign to deport failed asylum seekers.

Sibanda, 29, left Zimbabwe in 2003 after terminating his contract with former premier league champions AmaZulu.

He lived in Coventry, England, with his girlfriend before he was detained by immigration officials while making a routine weekly report at his local police station.

He has passed through several detention centres and was recently at the Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre in Oxfordshire, awaiting deportation.

Another Zimbabwean held at the centre said: “He has been talkative. He is a down to earth guy; you can’t really tell he played for the national team and a glamorous club like AmaZulu.”

Sibanda’s former team-mate at AmaZulu, Muzondiwa Mugadza, refused to confirm Sibanda’s detention. Mugadza who also lives in Coventry said: “I am not qualified to comment, sorry.”

Efforts to get a comment from Sibanda were unsuccessful.

Sibanda is not the first Zimbabwean footballer to suffer similar embarrassment after having their asylum claim rejected by the British authorities.

In January 2002, former national team and Dynamos goalkeeper Ernest Chirambadare was seized while working as a cleaner. He had told British authorities that he was an active member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

His claim was rejected because the officials believed he was in Britain for economic betterment.

“I am a footballer, not a cleaner. Why would I want to come here to be a cleaner?” he said at the time.

In rather desperate attempts to get legal status in the UK, tens of ex-premier league stars have been forced to seek asylum. Many of them play social football and have menial jobs as packers and cleaners.

Some of the former stars now in Britain include former national team goalkeeper Muzondiwa Mugadza, the ex-Highlanders duo of shot stopper Pope Moyo and winger Eugene Langa, ex-Dynamos stars Obey Murefu, Memory Mucherahohwa and Bheki Mlotshwa.
The Zimbabwean
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