SINCE Zimbabwe was banned from taking part in the Russia 2018 Football World Cup preliminary competition on March 12 due to a $67 000 (plus interest and legal fees) bill owed to former coach Jose Claudinei Georgini, nothing has been done to liquidate the debt.
NewsDay Editorial
A flurry of meetings has taken place between Zifa, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture, but the debt remains unpaid.
How embarrassing! The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has paid its outstanding $65 000 from levies and player registration fees owed, but there is still no word from the Cuthbert Dube-led Zifa board that the debt has been a. Perhaps they have some thinking about the windfall. We believe this money from the PSL must not be abused or diverted to other uses. It must go to that coach, commonly known as Valinhos.
Is it not embarrassing that the government cannot even pay that debt on behalf of the blundering Zifa and get Zimbabwe’s World Cup dream back on track by the July 25 draw. It is then that government can deal with Zifa, but after dealing with the debt.
Sadly, we have had more divisions in the clearly fractured Zifa with emails flying all over and being leaked to the Press on issues that are taking place at the national association.
What is clear though is that those leaking the emails have remained relevant for the Zifa detractors, who wish this situation could continue as they feast on the carcass. Conversely, Dube is making the situation at Zifa untenable with his arrogance.
The businessman has literally failed, and it is only noble for somebody who claims to command respect in the business community to resign from his positions.
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For starters, how does an individual claim to have used personal funds to bail Zifa, if it is not that he wanted to mortgage football’s mother body to himself so that it becomes impossible to remove him? In fact, instead of glossing over what he did, Dube should be ashamed because it is a sign of failure on his board.
It appears to the ordinary Zimbabwean that there is no difference between Dube and his chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze. In the same vein, we also wonder how women football boss Miriam Sibanda can remain relevant if it were not for the fights at Zifa.
We never heard a word from her on the Mighty Warriors’ trip to Ghana two weeks back; we have also not heard from her on how the same team will prepare for the return leg yet it’s clear that the Mighty Warriors are poised to qualify for the All-Africa Games finals. Should she not be rallying the nation, raising bonuses to motivate the players?
We believe the fights at Zifa must stop and allow football to develop. Mashingaidze must spare us the circus and allow board members to play an oversight role; otherwise he’s too secretive about nothing. The message is simple: Zifa must pay its debt. Government must stick to its ultimatum — no sacred cows in this.
It must be noted that, Zambia were last Thursday forced to pay former coach Dario Bonetti close to $432 000 after the coach claimed unfair dismissal against the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) and took his case to Fifa. Had Zambia not paid, they would have met the same fate as Zimbabwe; quite an embarrassment for FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya, who sits on the Caf Executive Committee.
Zambian Sports minister Vincent Mwale told Parliament that they had asked for special funding from the Ministry of Finance to avoid sanctions from Fifa. The Fifa disciplinary committee was due to adjudicate on the matter after FAZ had dillydallied on settling the Bonetti debt just like what Zifa did with Valinhos.
So, there is no harm in government clearing the Valinhos debt to save the country’s World Cup dream. It is unthinkable that Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa cannot raise money to bail out football at its hour of need yet funding expensive foreign trips by the Executive. Sad isn’t it?
