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WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa branded Jonathan Mashingaidze a habitual liar on Wednesday. Knowledge Musona and his lawyer Misheck Hogwe will probably agree with this brutal assessment of the zifa chief executive.And so will Ovidy Karuru.

In that corner, where you find those who agree with Gorowa’s vicious assessment of Mashingaidze’s character, you can also include Klaus-Dieter Pagels, who had a short stint as Warriors caretaker coach where, in the final phase of his tenure, he found out the true colours of some of the people he reported to.

Elisha Vheremu is probably a forgotten man now, in our football circles, but eight years ago he used to work at zifa House as the accountant before his arrest, on trumped-up charges of defrauding the association and, when his day in court finally came, he found out the true colours of some of the people he called his superiors.

He was cleared by Harare magistrate Omega Mugumbate in January 2007, on four counts of stealing US$2 000 and Z$40 000 in 2004 and 2005, with the magistrate saying the evidence at hand did not link the accountant to the commission of the offence and his defence that the allegations were cooked up at zifa House to hide the incompetence of senior officials, had merit.

Mashingaidze had led the prosecution’s case against Vhermu, in his role as zifa chief executive, and as the case spectacularly disintegrated in the courtroom, every word used by the judge in its dismissal buttressed the accused’s claims that those who had laid charges against him had drawn up a giant web of lies to try and destroy him.

The officials who work in the Fifa Legal Affairs Division are also, in private conversations, likely to second that motion after they established in March last year that Mashingaidze had been selling them a dummy, since October 2012, that he had sent four parcels of documents, related to the Asiagate investigations, via DHL.

Challenged to provide a track record of the supplied documents, the zifa chief failed and, when the boxes finally arrived in Zurich, it was found out that they had only been sent in the final week of March 2013 from Harare — exactly five months after his initial claim that he had sent the stuff.

Millions of Zimbabwean football fans, who took Mashingaidze on his word when he announced in February last year that zifa were bringing in Manchester City or, in the event that fails, Manchester United, Liverpool, Juventus, Real Madrid or Nigeria, for their Golden Jubilee Celebrations, will, also probably agree with Dibango’s brutal assessment.

That City, United, Liverpool, Juventus, Madrid or Nigeria didn’t come to town, as Mashingaidze had made us believe, is now a matter of public record but what is probably disappointing, from a corporate ethics perspective, is that no one cared to come back to the same people, to tell them why this grand plan had collapsed and, as good managers do, apologise for falsely raising their hopes of a possible dance with the world’s finest football teams.

But, then, we are now into the second year, since Musona demanded an apology after Mashingaidze sensationally accused him of match-fixing because, in the zifa chief executive’s media briefing, he had been “seen entering the premises of people implicated in the Asiagate scam.”

Mashingaidze said they had referred the issue to fifa and a distraught Musona, with his image bruised by the allegations, called time on his international career with his lawyer Hogwe writing to the zifa chief executive to advise him of the developments.

“In subsequent publications, your good office was also quoted as having said the matter had been referred to Fifa. This was despite that nobody from your good office had bothered to afford our client any kind of audience whatsoever,” wrote Hogwe.

“Our client’s position is that the allegations were baseless and most unfortunate, but he will not pre-empt a due process. Our client has instructed us to advise your good office that he shall not be available for selection for duty with the Warriors pending ‘investigations’, which apparently have not commenced to date (since he has not been interviewed).

“In the event that our client is cleared by any investigation(s), he would only be available for national duty on the following conditions:
a) That your good office proffers an unequivocal apology and ensures that such apology is given equal or better prominence by the media; and

b) That your good office communicates in writing with fifa confirming our client’s clearance and furnish us with a copy of such communication.

“Our client has adopted the foregoing position on account of immeasurable and probably not so reparable damage the grave allegations will potentially have to his career advancement if the matter is not disposed of expeditiously.

“Our client will, therefore, expect your good office to move with speed in bringing the matter to finality.”

That was in July 2012.

Exactly 20 months down the line, Mashingaidze hasn’t substantiated his sensational allegations against Musona, even though he smeared his name right into the corridors of fifa, and across the globe in this world of technology, the investigations haven’t been concluded and, crucially, he hasn’t given the forward an apology.

Against that background, Musona, or in this case his lawyer Hogwe, would probably have justification if they tell us that they find substance in Gorowa’s sensational outburst that Mashingaidze is a “habitual liar”.

A National Game That Is Reeling

In January this year, Lawrence Moyo sat down with Patience Khumalo, the chief executive of the country’s biggest football sponsor, Mbada Diamonds, and in an exclusive wide-ranging interview, touched on the State Of The Game in this country.
Khumalo was refreshingly honest about where we stand right now, when it comes to our national game, where we coming from and where we are probably going.

“It’s a disaster. If I was CEO of any football entity I would resign,” she told Moyo who was covering the African Nations Championships for Zimpapers.

“As a Football Trust, if we are to be asked what have we done, what have we achieved? I can comfortably say NOTHING. Why? Because we’ve done exactly that. Why? Because zifa are still able to run parallel and generate expenses because the national team has plans that, as a Football Trust, are not aware of and these things are just moving forward.

“As a Football Trust we’ve got industry leaders but industry leaders with what agendas? That is the problem. You find that at the beginning we were good to go but our stumbling block was money.

“To be appointed to the Trust it’s an honour that you’ve got brains but surely every week we discuss the same topic without results? It’s still there the Football Trust but we’ve stopped meeting. We are still discussing what we discussed in the first meeting because we’ve poor communication, poor co-ordination.

“For starts when you have the zifa CEO coming in to the Football Trust meeting, you would expect him to be the one who will drive it by telling us zifa’s plans so that we distribute tasks to different committees of the Trust. But if (1) he is not present or (2) he is not talking — literary not talking it becomes a big problem because the CEO is the one who should drive but you can’t get that out.”

Given that this is coming from the country’s biggest football sponsor, one would have expected those in leadership structures at zifa to be jolted into action, because the assessment provided by the sponsor doesn’t make good reading, and try and find a way to change things going forward.

The first thing, from a football leadership that cares for the game it leads, let along the need to cultivate a long-term relationship with the sponsor, would have been to call for an urgent zifa board meeting to discuss this report card, take a good look at themselves in the mirror, acknowledge their shortcomings and try to find solutions.

Then, the second move would have been to engage the sponsor, if that sponsor happens to be one who bankrolls the country’s flagship knockout tournament whose winner gets a ticket to fly our flag in the caf Confederation Cup, happens to be the one who forked close to US$400 000 to foot the costs of the Warriors’ trip to their 2013 Nations Cup final qualifier against Angola in Luanda.

But, the fact that the association didn’t care to address this issue, suggests that they conceded that the game was in a mess and the fact that they didn’t respond to such a damning report gives an impression that they had no clue, whatsoever, as to what could be the solution to the challenges that were weighing down heavily on the national game.

The issue of the challenges facing the zifa secretariat, though, had been highlighted earlier, long before Moyo interviewed Khumalo in January, and we have to go back to June last year when zifa president, Cuthbert Dube, also gave a damning report on the team that is led by Mashingaidze, which should be the nerve centre of the organisation’s operations.

“We have done some retrenchment and small restructuring at Zifa and it is an ongoing exercise so don’t sit on your laurels, we want performance,” Dube told journalists.

“You are the people on the ground, zifa board members are not executives, they are purely a policy-making board and it is entirely up to (Jonathan)Mashingaidze as the CEO and your staff to make sure that you perform AND IF YOU DON’T, DOORS ARE SO MANY THAT YOU CAN EXIT FROM.

“It’s time now to have this British thing called Hard Talk. I think the stage has been reached for Hard Talk. I want you Mashingaidze and your secretariat to perform and if you don’t I may have to change you before the next elections.”

Of course, seven months later, the game’s biggest sponsor raised similar concerns, which means we can assume that nothing had changed and whatever Dube said fell on deaf ears, and she even took it a step further by saying that, if she was the chief executive of any football body in the country she would have quit her post.

Nine months later, the Warriors coach has even gone further, using language that would be deemed inappropriate in the corridors of corporate structures that sponsor football, and on Wednesday described Mashingaidze as a “habitual liar.”

Has This Become A Tradition  Of Lying?

Zifa Extend Pagels Stay

The Herald, May 2, 2013

“I can confirm that zifa have sought permission from the authorities in terms of the period and we managed to get a facility for him to be able to be with us up to next year. In the meantime we are working on house-keeping issues considering that his contract will expire in September,” said Mashingaidze.

Pagels Set to Leave

The Herald, June 18, 2013
DIETER Klaus Pagels’ turbulent and short reign as Warriors coach ends on July 31 amid stunning revelations that zifa have not thrashed out a new deal for the German gaffer to extend his stay in this country.

Zifa have been giving a public impression that they have a deal in place to keep Pagels here longer than his original mandate, sponsored by the German government, to work here as a football development expert until the end of next month.

But The Herald can exclusively reveal today that there is nothing, right now, on the table for Pagels to stay a further one day in this country as the Warriors coach when his government-to-government programme runs out on July 31.

Although Pagels has assumed the role of Warriors coach, in the past few months, and guided the team in three World Cup qualifiers, the coach hasn’t signed a new deal to keep him here beyond July 31.

Pagels has been waiting, for months now, for Zifa to submit their contract so that he can put pen to paper, but nothing has been coming onto the table.

It’s all over for Pagels

The Herald, July 22, 2013
KLAUS Dieter Pagels’ eight-month romance as Warriors coach is over and the German gaffer leaves behind a nation torn in-between with one section embracing his tiki-taka revolution while another feels he remains hopelessly lightweight to be trusted with leadership of the national team.

“I leave on 31 July so I can only take charge of the first leg in Mauritius and I hope the next coach can continue with the philosophy that we have built in this team,” said Pagels
Gorowa offered contract

Chronicle, October 25, 2013

IN a show of confidence Zifa has offered the Zimbabwe Warriors coach Ian “Dibango” Gorowa a long-term contract whose details will be made public soon.

“We are done with his contract but we will make a public announcement on the details of the contract when the coach comes back from South Africa this weekend. He will be at Barbourfields for the big tie between Highlanders and Dynamos,” said the Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze.

He could not be drawn into discussing any further details about the contract but indications are that Gorowa will be in charge up to the 2018 World Cup finals that will be held in Russia.

“The contract is clear on what the board expects from him but all that will be made public sometime next week,” said Mashingaidze.
Mashingaidze is a habitual liar: Warriors coach Gorowa

Chronicle, February 27, 2014

ZIFA chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze has been described as a “habitual liar” by Warriors’ chan coach Ian Gorowa who refuted claims that he had been offered a contract.

Early this month the zifa head of secretariat told Chronicle Sport during a tour of the zifa Village that the football association had offered Gorowa a contract document and was now waiting for the coach to come back to them.

“The contract is already with him but he said he will come back to us after the finals (chan) so as an association we are waiting for him. If it takes long we might have to remind him,” said Mashingaidze then.

However, it has since emerged that no contract offer was extended to the former Black Rhinos and Dynamos player with Gorowa saying zifa should not try to look good in the eyes of the nation through manipulating his name.

“zifa has offered nothing up to now, they should desist from trying to look good in the eyes of the nation by manipulating my name,” said Gorowa.

Told that Mashingaidze said a contract had been given to him, Gorowa said: “That man is a habitual liar, tell him I said that and see what he does. I want to give back to my country but you can only do that to people who understand what football administration is all about.

Right now, even without a contract I have been engaging zifa to try and take advantage of the March 5 Fifa calendar day to have an international friendly but to no avail.”

Like David Moyes, The English Premiership Has Become A Joke

So poor Moyes, the Confused One became the first Manchester United manager to lose to Greek opposition as the Scotsman, in unfamiliar territory in the Last 16 of a Champions League, was ruthlessly exposed by Olympiakos, or whatever they call that team.

But while Moyes’ shortcomings have become as expected, as all the unfulfilled promises that have come from 53 Livingstone Avenue, what has come as a surprise is the gulf in quality that we have seen in the matches between Barcelona/Man City and Arsenal/Bayern.

When you have all the four English Champions League representatives, scoring only one goal in four matches in the Last 16, in a round where Real Madrid scored half-a-dozen goals in Germany, then you get a clear picture that quality football, and quality footballers,  appear to have deserted the cold island of England.

You get a feeling the English Premiership qualifies to be called a “habitual liar”, seducing us every weekend with technically-flawed football, disguised and packaged as quality stuff, and when you have hopeless coaches like Moyes, being tasked with guiding the future of a club like Manchester United, then you understand why standards have plummeted so much.
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