The player, a professional footballer who has previously won the championship with Amazulu and Monomotapa, but now plays in the First Division with Beitbridge-based FC Strikers, faces a year on the sidelines after the lapse of the ZIFA deadline.
“I don’t have money ZIFA asked for because I live from hand to mouth and my family will starve if I don’t play for the whole season,” he mourned. “I need some intervention because my life is strictly football-based. I failed to raise the money to pay the fine and would like to well-wishers to rescue me.”
With ZIFA indicating last week that those who did not pay by the December 31 2012 deadline would not be pardoned, Chitema’s appeal could have come three weeks too late.