WOMEN football councillors and club owners have called on the Zimbabwe Women Football (ZWF) board led by Miriam Sibanda to step down immediately accusing it of corruption and maladministration, among other allegations.
BY HENRY MHARA
The disgruntled group met in Harare yesterday where they wrote to Zifa president Cuthbert Dube asking him to dissolve the board with immediate effect.
Sibanda, voted into office in March 2014, had been invited to attend the meeting, but snubbed it because, according to her, the assembly was “unconstitutional”.
Her deputy Elizabeth Langa and executive member Cecilia Gambe attended the meeting in what observers said was a sign of a divided board.
Issues raised in a document that was set to be presented to Dube later in the day, according to NewsDay Sport sources, include those to do with clubs’ affiliation requirements for the 2015 season, Sibanda’s failure to get sponsorship for the league, the national team’s poor performances since she took over and the alleged misuse of a cash donation from a local mining company towards the Mighty Warriors’ All-Africa Games qualifiers against Ghana earlier this month.
However, Sibanda yesterday issued a statement showing that her board received $20 000. She also gave a breakdown on how the money was used including paying players and the technical team their allowances which gobbled over $13 000.
Our sources, who attended the meeting, said the other contentious issue was the affiliation requirements for clubs to play in the league including a $1 000 fee and other basic club licencing regulatory requirements as demanded by Zifa. The clubs, however, feel the demands, especially the fees, are not viable under the current tough economic conditions.
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“There were a lot of issues that were raised against this board,” said one source who is a councillor. “We feel that the board has failed because our football is actually sliding back since they took over and we feel we can’t continue like this. The league games were played haphazardly last season and we are not sure if the league will run this season, the Mighty Warriors team is dead that we cannot even match teams like Zambia who were previously our punching bags.
“The affiliation demands are also unrealistic especially considering the economic situation. Most of the club owners do not have sponsors, but they have shown passion for the game and we feel that the board does not recognise or respect that.” Sibanda, however, said she would not lose sleep over yesterday’s meeting because it was unconstitutional.
“The problem is that we have administrators who do not appreciate the complexity of running a league. The things that we want the clubs to do are basic requirements and if we are serious about developing our football, then we should be seen to be putting those basic things in place.
“Some of these clubs are a one-man show where the owner is the coach, the medic and the manager and that obviously compromises the quality of our product. We are saying the clubs should have a basic structure and a bank account and an affiliation fee as a sign of commitment that they would fulfil all their fixtures. We don’t want a situation like last year when other clubs failed
to fulfil their fixtures and up to now some are yet to pay referees their money from last year. I think this development is an indictment of the club owners who are failing to keep abreast of modern trends in football,” she said in a statement.
