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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
PROBLEMS haunting ZIFA are set to come to the fore on Saturday when the Sport and Recreation Commission meet with the football association’s board in what promises to be a no-holds-barred meeting in the capital on Saturday.

The Sports Commission had earlier hinted that they would meet with both the ZIFA board and a group of former administrators called the Lifelong Footballers Trust of Zimbabwe, fronted by Francis Zimunya, which petitioned Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa to disband the Cuthbert Dube leadership.

However, Sports Commission director-general Charles Nhemachena yesterday revealed that they had now convened an indaba with Dube and his leadership on Saturday to try and find solutions to the problems at ZIFA, which include the in-fighting within the board, the challenges the game is facing and the concerns raised by Zimunya and his clique.

The meeting is being held at Langa’s instigation as the Minister tasked the Sports Commission to present a detailed report on the how the country’s flagship sport is being administered.

Langa’s deputy, Tabitha Kanengoni Malinga, however, hinted on a radical approach when she told parliament yesterday that they were prepared to face the FIFA sanctions by intervening and firing the ZIFA board.

It is Malinga’s contention that Zimbabwe “can be suspended from the international game while we clean up the mess at ZIFA and then come back a stronger nation’’. Nhemachena said they would at the meeting also establish if ZIFA had met the benchmarks that Langa set for them during the Minister’s inaugural indaba with the board including the call for unity among the association’s leaders.

Cracks have characterised the ZIFA board with some members sending a memorandum to Dube and his deputy Omega Sibanda to act on chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze whom they accuse of usurping their powers.

Nhemachena said he was hopeful the entire ZIFA board would attend the meeting which he felt was critical if solutions to the problems dogging football are to be found.

“We are going to meet the full ZIFA board to discuss a number of issues, including the Minister’s expectations as expressed and outlined by the Minister when he first met with the board.

“There are also issues that have been raised by stakeholders in the game, issues which people believe are impeding progress in football and it is important to address all that,’’ Nhemachena said. Dube yesterday said his board was ready to meet with the Commission and present their side of the story.

The ZIFA president acknowledged that his association was facing “a number of challenges which are largely due to the issue of funding’’ but reckoned that they could overcome some of the problems if they achieve unity within their structures.

“As ZIFA we are ready to meet with the SRC and update them on the problems in the game. We will share with them the state of football, our preparations for the forthcoming commitments like the All-Africa Games, the Nations Cup qualifiers and the World Cup qualifiers all of which are on this year.

“We welcome this opportunity to appraise the government through the Sports Commission on the ground that we have covered, the board’s resolutions on how policy issues are to be handled and we would want to also highlight our concerns with the trend to try and make football ungovernable.

“We are the sole football governing body in the country and have to be answerable to the nation in terms of the mandate that we have been given to administer the game.

“We would also want to reiterate our support for the Minister’s stance against the high ground rentals by municipal authorities which is affecting our clubs,” Dube said. The ZIFA boss said they would also highlight to the Commission the steps his association had taken to ensure the Mighty Warriors and the Young Warriors would be prepared for their All-Africa Games qualifiers, which he maintained were topping their priority list.

ZIFA has asked through the Sports Commission for government financial assistance for the national teams campaigns.

But with Langa having indicated that his ministry only received $100 000 from Treasury for all the 53 national associations, a figure too paltry to parcel out to all the sport codes, ZIFA would have to seek other ways of raising revenue to meet their obligations.

Nhemachena, whose Commission will also be in charge of Team Zimbabwe to the 2015 All-Africa Games, said they were expecting to step their act at the end of the month after getting a run down on the Games preparations.

“Our Chef de mission Joseph Muchechetere is going to Brazzaville for the first meeting of the chef de missions from 24-26 February and a lot will come from there and after that we will up the tempo in terms of technical rules, the qualification requirements for some disciplines, schedule of the Games and issues to do with registration,’’ Nhemachena said.