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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

THE Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry, believes solutions will be found soon, leading to the lifting of the FIFA ban and see Zimbabwe back to international football earlier than was envisaged.

Coventry told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation that her office was seized with the problems bedeviling the domestic game following the recent suspension of Zimbabwe’s membership by FIFA.

The suspension entails that Zimbabwean representative and club teams are not entitled to take part in international competitions until the suspension is lifted.

During the suspension, neither the ZIFA nor any of its members or officials may benefit from any development programmes, courses or training from FIFA and CAF.

ZIFA were suspended by FIFA for “third party interference” after the Sports Commission had suspended the bungling ZIFA board led by Felton Kamambo in November last year.

The suspended board faced several allegations which included lack of transparency with public funds, maladministration, bribery, vote-buying during election time and the sexual harassment of female referees.

Kamambo and some of his lieutenants like Philemon Machana, who was the Board Member Finance, and suspended chief executive officer, Joseph Mamutse, have been arraigned before the courts and are facing criminal offences that include fraud and bribery.

FIFA had said as part of the conditions for Zimbabwe’s suspension to be lifted, the Sports Commission had to reverse their decision and reinstate the suspended ZIFA board, and facilitate the withdrawal of the court cases, among other demands.

The parliamentarians yesterday wanted to hear from the Minister on measures that were being put in place to restore sanity in the administration of football in the country in view of the current impasse.

Coventry gave assurances that solutions were being worked out. This comes as CAF have extended the window for Zimbabwe ahead of the draw for next year’s AFCON tournament.

CAF said in a statement that Zimbabwe and Kenya were among the 48 teams that were eligible for the second round draw of the AFCON qualifiers but could only participate in the games based on the set out conditions.

“I want to thank the committee for all the valuable points and I believe most will understand that there is a lot happening in the background,” said Coventry, while addressing the parliamentarians.

“Unfortunately, I can’t be forthcoming with everything that’s happening in the background.

“My appeal is that you trust me, I am asking for your trust. There are things that are happening. I want to promise the committee that at the end of the day, I am not interested in politics, otherwise I would be a politician.

“I am not interested in the flexing of muscles; people are there to do their jobs. My biggest interest and focus is the protection of athletes because I, as an athlete, understand what they have been going through, and it’s not okay.

“I don’t want my athletes to miss out on any games because it means opportunities for them to put bread on their tables.

“So I want to assure you that I am doing everything in my power to make sure that there is coming together, figuring out a mutual way forward that is a win-win.

“So please have faith and trust that there are many things happening but for now, also because some of it is still in the legal courts, there is just not a lot that I can really reveal about all that information at this point.

“But every single person involved right now, whether it be on the SRC board, the ZIFA secretariat or some of the suspended ZIFA board members, everyone has the best interest of moving Zimbabwean football forward.

“So I believe that you will see some things in the next few weeks. You will be hearing from the football members and you have to be able to respect that and also support them.

“Football is our heartbeat, it is a part of who we are as Zimbabweans and every single person that is moving things forward and driving for change believes in that.”

This comes as members of the ZIFA Congress are also set to meet later this month to deliberate the way forward.

But yesterday members of the parliamentary portfolio committee, led by Mathias Tongofa, said the court of public opinion in their constituencies wanted the FIFA ban lifted.

They were almost unanimous in calling for the responsible football authorities to find a ‘’win-win’’ solution.

The parliamentarians believe the impasse between ZIFA and the SRC was a result of personal egos and should not have been allowed to go on and on until it attracted FIFA suspension.

Coventry, however, maintained there were strong grounds for the suspension of the ZIFA board by the Sports Commission in November last year.

She said the continued negative headlines had also caught the attention of President Mnangagwa, who urged them to find a solution to the chronic problems of football administration.

The Sports Commission has since set up a Restructuring Committee as part of the strategic roadmap towards addressing the issues that have affected football management and administration.

“There was reason for suspending the ZIFA board and the procedure of suspending the board were done correctly. This decision wasn’t taken overnight. It has been months and months and conversation… Looking at the procedures and everything.

“I know that there are some who do not agree and I understand that. I know that emotionally there is a huge attachment to soccer and I can appreciate that and I hope that there is that drive to make things better. But reinstating the (suspended ZIFA) board is not going to make things any better.

“Right now the goal is to try to figure out a way forward that is win-win for both. FIFA can’t be made to look like they are not abiding by their statutes when there is clear third party interference from the Sports Commission.

“No one is denying that; no one has ever said that never happened. The SRC Act allows for the SRC to do that. It gives them the right to set up a committee (the ZIFA Restructuring Committee).

“That committee cannot interfere with the running of ZIFA and they are not interfering. They are not an interim committee; they are not an interim board.

“They are a special committee set by the SRC with different backgrounds of experience to help find a way forward for everybody.

“The assessment was done before the suspension of the ZIFA board; we knew fully well what the consequences could be. We have consistently as Ministry, and as SRC, tried since 2019 to work through some of the issues with ZIFA. “The Government have paid in full for every tournament that has taken place outside Zimbabwe in the last few years, both men and women. As for ZIFA finances, we don’t know what money went where. From what money they received from FIFA, we have never asked them to see that.

“We have only asked them to account for our Government money because one of the things we know as Government, and I know specifically, is that we cannot go into ZIFA and dictate to them to tell us where their FIFA money went.

“That’s not for us, that’s not what we are talking about. We are asking for public funds to be accounted for, which is still to be accounted for since 2019.  That is inappropriate, that is wrong.

“On gender equality, last year when we had our qualifying tournaments, the men were staying at the Holiday Inn and the women were put at the ZIFA Village where they were sharing beds and sleeping on floors.

“The payment, I think the women were getting US$10 per day and the men I think US$100 per day. It consistently went against everything that the Ministry had requested for ZIFA to do.

“We are ranked 122 in the men’s football, that is terrible. It is unacceptable. Our players are far better than that but they are not given the support to do better.

“After three years of trying, enough is enough. I went to His Excellency (President Mnangagwa), I laid everything on the table and I said this is what we want to do.

“So we laid everything out on the table and we took a very educated decision that we know we will probably be suspended but enough is enough. It’s time now we had to take a stand at some point.

“And the Government gave the SRC full blessings to move ahead and take the decision to suspend (the ZIFA board) at the end of last year,” said Coventry.