Sports Reporter
ZIFA vice-president Omega Sibanda says he wasn’t aware of the joint Press conference with Fifa officials held at the ZIFA Village on Thursday and has blamed chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze for keeping him away from proceedings.

Sibanda arrived at the ZIFA Village after the media conference had ended.

Fifa officials, who had been in the country for five days, addressed the media, with the ZIFA finances dominating their address.

ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube and board members John Phiri and Fungai Chihuri attended the media conference.

Sibanda yesterday said he wasn’t aware of the media briefing and had come to Harare to attend a ZIFA board meeting that had been scheduled for the same day.

“I wasn’t late for the press conference as implied in some sections of the media today (yesterday), but the fact is that I did not know about that press conference at all,” said Sibanda.

“I flew into Harare in the morning for a ZIFA board meeting and I proceeded to book myself at the ZIFA Village, where we had been told we would stay, only to be told that a press conference had been taking place.

“I used my money to fly into Harare, which means that I care for our game because I felt that we had a crucial board meeting.

“I only got to know that the ZIFA board meeting had been cancelled through an e-mail, which was sent on Thursday night at about 7pm by the chief executive and only got to see it on Friday morning.

“It’s sad, but I feel that the chief executive hasn’t been handling the portfolio of communicating serious issues to the board members as well as he should be doing.”

Sibanda said Mashingaidze wasn’t sincere in the way he was handling his office duties and this was affecting the operations of the ZIFA board.

“The CEO is somebody who is not sincere and he is not honest,” Sibanda said.

“We have debts that we need to take care of, but I feel that the CEO is not honest when it comes to helping the board to deal with the debt, where they are coming from and what should be done to liquidate them.

“As football leaders, we are there to serve the nation and we should be seen to be doing the right thing in terms of providing leadership, but it’s unfortunate that the CEO doesn’t want to see that happening and, instead, wants the board to concentrate on personalities and bickering.

“Even if we get $10 million today, I don’t think that we will emerge from our debt crisis because the CEO doesn’t want to see the organisation working smoothly.

“It is important for us to sit down as a board and look at all the figures and see how best we can deal with the situation, but even though this is a very important issue, the CEO doesn’t look at it that way and we continue to accrue debts and we should not raise alarm about that.

“We won’t deal with the debt as long as the CEO wants to lead us on this path where we should not look at the figures and try and find solutions because he is more concerned with us looking at personalities and fighting some individuals.”

Sibanda said he was in full support of ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube and believes he really wants to clear the ZIFA debt and also help Zimbabwean football develop.

“What the president (Dube) is doing is the right thing and he needs all the support that all the board members should give him. He is a man who is committed to ensuring that we clear this debt and we start on a clean slate and for that, I will always support him,” said Sibanda.

“He is working tirelessly to try and make our organisation work in very difficult circumstances and he is a very honest man who wants to see a successful ZIFA that is not carrying this huge debt which is crippling our operations.

“I believe in the president that we have and that he is the right man to lead our football right now and if he can be supported, I think we can achieve something.

“But the CEO doesn’t want our system to work because of his selfish ends and he has ensured that a cancerous situation prevails, where all the focus is on personalities and not on moving our football forward.

“The time has come for us to say that we cannot allow him to continue dividing the football family, misleading and lying to the president at a time when we need unity of purpose for our game to move from where it is.

“Everyone is blaming him (Mashingaidze) and now it’s high time we looked into it. We can’t ignore these sentiments anymore.”

Sibanda said board members, who were given a mandate by the assembly to run the game, were either being ignored by Mashingaidze or were being misled and this situation could not be allowed to continue.

He said he couldn’t understand how board members were not given a chance to spend time with Fifa officials, who were here for five days, to deal with a key issue like the association’s debt and how this was affecting the operations of their organisation.

Mashingaidze has already clashed with Zimbabwe Women Soccer League boss Miriam Sibanda.

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