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NewsDay

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Something sinister about Zifa liquidation

Opinion & Analysis
The events of last weekend revealed what has always been known about our football — that it is either run by people hopelessly out of their depth or those seeking the cheap thrill of public office.

The events of last weekend revealed what has always been known about our football — that it is either run by people hopelessly out of their depth or those seeking the cheap thrill of public office.

NewsDay Comment

chiyangwa

Zifa president, Philip Chiyangwa announced they had changed the name of the football mother body to National Football Association of Zimbabwe (NFAZ) and had fresh elections that gave them a new four-year mandate.

Chiyangwa went on to announce that they had liquidated Zifa and were no longer liable for the football association’s debts, including those of workers, who were owed several months’ salaries in arrears.

If it is this easy to get out of debt, then even the country would have gone down this effortless route and told the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank they were no longer liable.

Now the questions that Chiyangwa and his motley crew have to answer is whether the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) approved Zifa’s liquidation and if this was not in afoul of any of the country’s laws.

The country also deserves to know when NFAZ had its constitution registered by the SRC and what mandate Chiyangwa and his group had to dissolve the old football association.

As has happened in the past, changes to the Zifa constitution were precipitated by extensive countrywide consultations, but this one seems to have been sprung on Zimbabweans with very little in the form of notification.

If Chiyangwa liquidated Zifa, then those councillors who gave him a new four-year term also did not have a mandate to vote him in, as their posts also became vacant and they deserved to seek fresh terms.

Chiyangwa cannot have his cake and eat it too.

As they say, the devil is in the detail, Chiyangwa earned himself an undeserved four-year term when his mandate was just to complete his predecessor’s term, and this may be the real reason why they decided to liquidate Zifa, to prolong their stay in power.

He and his board have come out as a power-hungry grouping, who were elected on the promise of cleaning up Zifa and have instead taken the easy route out.

Now that they have liquidated Zifa, what is there to stop them racking up debt at NFAZ and liquidating the association three years from now and seeking fresh terms again and redoing the process all over again and again?

Most of the councillors, who voted at the weekend, have been with Zifa for years and allowed the football association to fall into massive debt with little or no oversight and we cannot expect any better of them in the new dispensation.

What the country’s football needs is a strong institution with equally strong structures that will protect it from such shoddy administrators and people that think they can escape liabilities when it suits them.

We had our reservations about Chiyangwa’s administrative acumen, now we feel vindicated, his companies are not a paragon of how businesses should be run and he is bringing that same spirit to football.