Zifa will seek to conclude the long drawn out investigations into the Asiagate match- fixing scandal before the Warriors take on Zambia in an international friendly match in Ndola on August 8.
This, together with the appointment of a substantive Warriors coach, will be the main items on the agenda as the Zifa board meets this morning.
Said Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze yesterday: We are obviously looking at the resolution of this matter before the August 8 friendly against Zambia, the Four Nations tournament and the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Angola.
We are also saying we cannot continue having an interim arrangement for the Warriors and we are looking at making a decision on a substantive coach.
The Warriors are under interim coach Rahman Gumbo following the suspension of Norman Mapeza on allegations of match-fixing. Mapeza also faces action from Zifa for insubordination after he had been asked to continue reporting for duty despite his suspension.
That was the first time Zimbabwe got to know that Mapeza had a three-year contract with Zifa. The latest allegations against him make his return to the Warriors fold highly unlikely after another reported fall- out with Zifa boss Cuthbert Dube.
Asiagate, which allegedly started under the reign of former Zifa president Wellington Nyatanga who got into office in 2006, has seen 33 players and officials being cleared of the match-fixing scandals by a Justice Ahmed Ebrahim-led Ethics Committee.
Some of the cleared players include Khama Billiat, Ovidy Karuru and Willard Katsande who made a return to the national team in the June 2014 World Cup qualifiers, and former Warriors coach Valinhos.
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A total of 60 players and officials still await their fate. These include Method Mwanjali, Nyasha Mushekwi, Thomas Sweswe, Godfrey Japajapa, Ernest Sibanda and Zifa board members Methembe Ndlovu, Kenny Marange and Solomon Mugavazi.
Henrietta Rushwaya, who was the chief executive during the Nyatanga era, was cleared by the courts and has one pending case where she is alleged to have concealed a trip to her superiors when Monomotapa travelled to Malaysia posing as the national team. In June, she was accused of meeting Knowledge Musona and Karuru in the aftermath of the Warriors poor performances against Guinea and Mozambique in the World Cup.
She has since instigated criminal defamation charges against Mashingaidze for the allegations. Nyatanga is also heavily fingered as having allowed the scandal to take place under his nose.
A report released by the now-disbanded Zifa investigating committee last year, said on Nyatanga: The complicity of the then Zifa president (Mr) Wellington Nyatanga cannot be ruled out as his failure to rein in the chief executive officer (CEO)s (Rushwaya) activities bordered on serious dereliction of authority.
He let loose the CEO onto the board and association resulting in them not functioning. The CEO became untouchable and thus a mini-god.
