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NewsDay

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Comment: Zim football needs complete overhaul

Opinion & Analysis
RECENT developments at the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) are a stark reminder that local football is dead and that the country is critically short of visionary sports administrators.

RECENT developments at the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) are a stark reminder that local football is dead and that the country is critically short of visionary sports administrators. The squabbles at Zifa and the lack of interest shown by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) in resolving the problems bedevilling local football calls for a complete overhaul of its administrators. Elsewhere in this paper former Warriors coach Ian Gorowa has written Zifa claiming over $100 000 for unpaid services during his stint, and is threatening to take the matter to world football governing body Fifa. This follows similar action by ex-gaffers Valinhos, who is owed $81 000, and Tom Saintfiet ($150 000). Who knows how many other ex-coaches — Norman Mapeza, Sunday Chidzambwa, Charles Mhlauri and Rahman Gumbo, among others — will follow suit? Three months before the 2018 World Cup draw in Russia, Zimbabwe still has not paid Valinhos’ debt. So Zimbabwe remains excluded from the preliminaries. It is an established fact that Zifa owes all former Warriors coaches. It is unbelievable how Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze continue to dig in when it is apparently clear that the two have failed the most popular sport in the country. Unfortunately, whenever their management style is questioned, they rush to Fifa for protection, yet the most honourable thing for them to do is relinquish their posts. Zimbabweans have had to ask: Do Dube and Mashingaidze have the game of football at heart? Most likely not! We believe if they did, both of them would have resigned a long time ago to allow the country to resuscitate the sport. Instead, they have tried machinations to deliberately push out any dissenting voices in the Zifa board – starting with Zimbabwe Women’s Football chairperson Miriam Sibanda. But Sibanda has stayed put and is refusing to give in to manoeuvres bent on destroying the last thread of the game of football. Reports also show that Dube and Mashingaidze’s next targets are Zifa board vice-president Omega Sibanda and board member (finance) Ben Gwarada. These two must not resign because if they are forced to quit that will put the final nail on the local football coffin. What should be understood is the fact that this is Mashingaidze’s second spell at Zifa having held the same position under the Rafik Khan-chaired board and paved the way for Henrietta Rushwaya under Wellington Nyatanga. So Mashingaidze believes he is invincible. There have been problems in the past, but current challenges at Zifa, whose main perpetrators are Dube and Mashingaidze, could pass to be the worst crisis ever in local football. Sports minister Andrew Langa is at worst weakened by the Zanu PF internal strife that saw him being stripped of his provincial chairmanship. Langa has not helped the situation by refusing to work with his deputy Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga, who believes Zifa needs a complete overhaul, leaving the ministry divided on the way forward. The SRC have done nothing to halt the decay at Zifa. Is it not evident that Dube and Mashingaidze have failed Zimbabwe? Is it also not palpable that there will be no solution to the decay until the duo let go the beautiful game? It is time for new names to come to the rescue of football in the country. Unfortunately, locally there is no culture of resigning when one fails be it in politics, business or sports. Leo Mugabe was ousted via a vote of no confidence, Khan faced the courts and Nyatanga chose not to seek re-election. It is time Zimbabwean football changed both the script and the characters.