EDITORAL : Sadomba is not guilty yet

THIS week, our coverage was dominated by just one man – former Zimbabwe international footballer Edward Sadomba.

His stories made over cover pages on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Monday story was a very good one – it talked about the courageous battle he fought against the might of FIFA to get compensation from his Libyan club which had wanted to con him.

The Libyan club tried to dupe Sadomba, telling FIFA they had paid him in full when the reality was that they owed him US$450 000.

The former Dynamos star lost his case at FIFA but took it to football’s final court of appeal – the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

It was a huge gamble because he needed to pay US$60 000, just for his case to be heard, without any guarantees that he would win it.

Sadomba took the gamble, sold his house in Waterfalls and the football gods smiled on him and he won the case and received his US$450 000 pay-out.

Last week he revealed the intricate details of his fight, including fasting for three days and three nights.

However, the other two stories, on Wednesday and Thursday, were not good ones, in as far as Sadomba is concerned.

They were quite negative stories and they spoke about the challenges stalking his marriage, which faces the grim reality of collapsing.

His wife Sherlynn claims in court papers that he is abusive and she now needs a protection order against him.

It’s the biggest attack to Sadomba’s profile and it’s a massive setback to a man who, until now, was widely regarded as a model professional who should be used as an example by millions of kids who dream of pursuing a football career. Sadomba’s case reminds of us Ryan Giggs case.

The Manchester United legend was a model footballer, who even ended up being an ambassador for UNICEF, but his world exploded when he was accused of assaulting his former girlfriend.

Giggs was forced out of Sky Sports, where he was a pundit, because of concern that the allegations would damage the broadcaster’s reputation.

However, in July last year Giggs was cleared of all the allegations against him.

The charges were withdrawn by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Our role isn’t about judging people and we are not going to judge Sadomba even though we are aware of the damage this is having on his reputation.

We hope that, just like Giggs, he can also prove his case that he isn’t guilty of abusing his wife.

That is the only way that he can clear himself and it’s good that the case is already in the chambers of the justice system.

The onus is on Sadomba to prove himself and, if Giggs managed to do it, there will always be a window of hope that the former Dynamos star can also do it.

That is for the justice system to decide.

For now, Sadomba has to deal with the consequences of the negativity triggered by the fallout from this messy situation.

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