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. . . why the Blatter bombshell is needed from Zurich to ZIFA

Sepp Blatter

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
IN that defining moment when Sepp Blatter summoned the courage to defeat his demons, and see the light the forces of darkness had been shielding from him, the brutality of the honesty of his message was so powerful it represented far more than just a farewell speech.

As Blatter’s defiance melted away, just four days after winning a fresh mandate to lead world football despite a raging storm of corruption that has engulfed FIFA, there was a striking similarity to the events in Zurich — when the end finally came — to matters on the domestic front.

And his farewell speech, in more ways than one, appeared to be scripted by those familiar with the events in Zimbabwe football where, until FIFA’s dramatic intervention recently, would have been a perfect message for Cuthbert Dube after five years as ZIFA president.

Of course, the defiance in the ZIFA leadership still runs deep — an order from FIFA that a Joint Congress of the extraordinary and general meeting be held on or before June 16, incorporating the items raised by rebellious councillors who briefly ousted Dube last month, has been ignored.

Yesterday, ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze sent a notice to councillors advising them that only the annual general meeting will be held on June 27, and there were indications last night the latest developments had angered the Sports Commission.

“The Zimbabwe Football Association hereby sends a reminder that the ZIFA Assembly’s Annual General Meeting shall be held in terms of the ZIFA Constitution, Article 26, as follows — Date (Sat, 27th June 2015); Venue (ZIFA Village and Conference Centre, Harare); Time (10am),” Mashingaidze wrote in his notice.

“The Annual General Meeting shall afford the members of the Assembly the opportunity to have a full appreciation of the state of football in Zimbabwe. The meeting has had to be convened on the 27th of June 2015 on account of the financial constraints the Association is currently facing.

“Invitations have been extended to FIFA, CAF, COSAFA and the parent Ministry to attend the meeting on 27th of June 2015.

“Please find hereto attached a copy of the Annual General Meeting’s agenda and confirmation form to be completed and returned to the Association by no later than Friday 5th June 2015.”

The items on the agenda don’t feature any of the issues that were discussed by the councillors at their meeting last month and, instead, expose the plot by the game’s leadership to suspend or expel members, taking Zimbabwe football back to the dark days of 2004 when Mashingaidze was the chief executive and a number of Councillors were banned from the game.

According to the agenda, the Councillors will — “elect the President, Vice President and Board members (if applicable), to dismiss a person or body, to suspend or expel members (and) to admit new members.”

The stage is, therefore, being set for either the suspension or expulsion of ZIFA Vice-President Omega Sibanda and Board Member Bernard Gwarada and other councillors whom the association leadership believe have become toxic to the game.

Interestingly, Gwarada and Sibanda could even go earlier, at a Board Meeting set for June 15, where one of the items on the agenda, sent by Mashingaidze, will deal with the “suspension of members.”

However, given that this item didn’t feature in the initial agenda, for the same meeting sent on March 19, its inclusion on the agenda is unconstitutional and just goes to show how the Constitution is being violated, recklessly, without people being brought to account.

Crucially, the concerns of the Councillors who rebelled against Dube’s leadership have been ignored, the order from FIFA that their issues be incorporated in a Joint Congress has been defied and the Sports Commission’s position, that they will be guided by recommendations that came from the world football governing body, now appears like a joke.

Instead, everything is being set up to ensure that Dube consolidates his power, and absolute hold on the game, and the poor Sports Commission, as they have always done in such scenarios, will be watching from a distance.

While Blatter, to his credit, finally conceded that he had lost the support of the branches that matter in football, despite winning another mandate to remain in charge of FIFA from the Congress, and decided to step down on Tuesday, the machinery at 53 Livingstone Avenue is working overtime to ensure that Dube’s hold on to the domestic game is consolidated.

Even against a background where there are striking similarities between Dube and Blatter’s positions which, of course, have become untenable, except to those who are part of their backroom staff and inner circle, the mission to consolidate Dube’s power is in full swing.

Some of the questions that Dube, like Blatter, should ask himself, right now, include:

• While I have a mandate from the membership of ZIFA, do I feel that I have a mandate from the entire football community in Zimbabwe — THE FANS, THE PLAYERS, THE CLUBS, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE, BREATHE AND LOVE FOOTBALL?

• While I felt compelled to stand for re-election in March last year, as I believed this was the best thing for ZIFA, that election is long over but ZIFA’s challenges are not and, in that scenario, doesn’t it tell me that ZIFA need a profound overhaul?

• If I cherish ZIFA more than anything else and I want to do only what is best for ZIFA and for football, doesn’t this mean that — given all the challenges that the organisation I lead is facing, and the fact that a third of its membership openly said I wasn’t the best man to lead them — it will be in the interest of this game if, just like Blatter, I walk away?

• Shouldn’t I, just like Blatter, be guided by the principle that “what matters to me, more than anything, is that when all of this is over, and I have walked away and given the mandate to lead to someone else, football will be the winner?

• If, ultimately, Blatter felt that if he didn’t have the support of a third of the FIFA Congress, as was the case at the elections in Zurich last Friday, and it was a strong message from the electorate that he should walk away, shouldn’t I also consider the same, given that at the ZIFA elections in March last year, more than a third of the ZIFA Congress voted for either Trevor Carelse-Juul or Lesley Gwindi in that first round of voting?

• And, only last month, a third of the membership also asked me to go?

• f sponsors have made it very clear, as has been the case in the past five years, that they will not be part of this game, as long as I am its leader, and the same sponsors, probably, had a huge influence on Blatter deciding to quit, wouldn’t it be in the best interest of this game that I also walk away?

It now looks like a long time ago but it was only in January 2014 when the then chief executive of Mbada Diamonds, Patience Khumalo, whose company was the biggest football sponsor in the country, described the game here as a disaster.

“It’s a disaster. If I was CEO of any football entity I would resign. Because of the Mbada Cup I’ve found out the state of football at all levels and it is a disaster the way we are going,” Khumalo said.