Attacking midfielder Blessings Tembo has\u2014for all his vast football experience\u2014made a sensational claim that Be Forward Wanderers forced him to sign a three-year contract, following the expiry of his contract with Silver Strikers.
\nTembo\u2019s u-turn could compromise his career as, as per Fifa\u2019s rules, he cannot play for any other team\u2014apart from Wanderers\u2014as that could constitute breach of contract.
\nThe former Silver captain has asked for the termination of the deal with Wanderers\u2014two days after putting pen to paper\u2014 claiming that he did not scrutinise the agreement properly.
\n\u201cI would like to inform you that I am wilfully and willingly withdrawing and terminating the contract I signed between myself and Wanderers dated December 31 2017. I signed the contract under duress without reading and understudying all the terms of the agreement,\u201d reads part of the letter which Tembo signed on Tuesday.
\n\u201cI have done this on the same day I was asked to sign the agreement and there have been no financial executions on both sides, and my decision should be respected for the good of football in Malawi.\u201d
\nThe winger is sane and he is an adult; hence, in law, his argument that he signed the contract under duress does not hold water. In law, ignorance is no defence.
\nFurthermore, Fifa\u2019s rules and regulations, Article 17, state that unilateral termination of a contract is only permissible when there is a just cause ( either playing less than 10 percent of games in a season or over unpaid dues).
\n\u201cIf a contract is terminated without just cause, the person in breach will have to pay compensation. Generally, when calculating the level of compensation, the law of the country concerned and the specific city of sport will be considered.
\n\u201cOther criteria which will be taken into account will be the player\u2019s pay and benefits due under the existing contract and\/or the new contract, the time remaining on the existing contract up to a maximum of five years, the fees and expenses paid or incurred by the former club and whether the contractual breach falls within a \u2018protected period\u2019,\u201d www.fifa.com states.
\nTembo\u2019s Manager, Jimmy Linje, yesterday admitted that his client belongs to Wanderers, but he was looking for proper mediation process.
\nHe feared that the issue could affect Tembo\u2019s career.
\n\u201cIt is a fact that he (Blessings) is a Wanderers\u2019 player at the moment. He, indeed, signed the contract with Wanderers. He has no contract with Silver, but because he has reversed his decision, we want to discuss with Wanderers,\u201d Linje said.
\n\u201cWe are confident that we will reach an agreement with Wanderers so that we can compensate them. His family is based in Lilongwe so, he wants to remain at Silver.\u201d
\nLinje\u2019s position contradicts that of Silver interim General Secretary, Thabo Nyirenda, who, despite telling the press earlier that the player\u2019s contract was expiring in 2017 and that they were discussing for a renewal, has now claimed that Tembo\u2019s deal would expire on June 30 2018.
\nIn response on Tuesday evening, Wanderers General Secretary, Mike Butao, said Tembo belongs to them.
\n\u201cWe were fully aware of the contents of Blessings\u2019 contract with Silver which expired on December 24 2017 because we fully enquired before proceeding with the signing of the player. I would like to urge you to refrain from saying \u201cBlessings signed Wanderers\u2019 contract under duress\u201d because of the criminal implications against which we might be forced to defend ourselves to protect our image,\u201d Butao said.
\nTembo is a talented attacking midfielder who helped Silver to win the Airtel Top 8 Cup after beating Wanderers 10-9 on post-match penalties at Bingu National Stadium.
\nNyirenda has since written Football Association of Malawi (Fam) on the issue.
\n\u201cThe contract was, thus, signed by mistake. We have also been furnished with a copy of the letter from Blessings to Wanderers in which the former rescinded the contract based on several grounds, including glaring fundamental errors regarding commencement date and consideration, among others,\u201d reads part of Nyirenda\u2019s letter which The Daily Times has seen.
\nWhen contacted yesterday, Fam acting Competitions Manager, Casper Jangale, said the issue was between Wanderers and the player.
\nThere is also confusion on who really represents Tembo as, apart from Linje, Juma Katswiri and Wesley Njete have also been claiming that the winger is their client.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Attacking midfielder Blessings Tembo has\u2014for all his vast football experience\u2014made a sensational claim that Be Forward Wanderers forced him to sign a three-year contract, following the expiry of his contract with Silver Strikers. Tembo\u2019s u-turn could compromise his career as, as per Fifa\u2019s rules, he cannot play for any other team\u2014apart from Wanderers\u2014as that could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58537,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58530\/revisions\/58537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}