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Petros Kausiyo

WORLD soccer governing body FIFA are not satisfied with the reform process in the Zimbabwe game and are now set to unveil a new Normalisation Committee for ZIFA.

Zimpapers Sports Hub can reveal that FIFA are to name another committee to run the affairs of ZIFA and replace Lincoln Mutasa’s leadership, whose mandate is due to officially expire on June 30.

It has emerged that the new Normalisation Committee, is to be unveiled on July 2 and will be handed a nine-month tenure to complete the task, which Mutasa and his team had set in motion since their July 11, 2023 appointment.

ZIFA chief executive Yvonne Manwa said last night that they were still to receive official communication from FIFA on the future of the Normalisation Committee.

“We have not been informed officially of anything with respect to the Normalisation Committee,’’ Manwa said.

“There has been no communication as to whether there will be changes or not.

“But what is common knowledge is that yes the term of office of the Normalisation Committee is coming to an end on June 30 and we will stand guided by FIFA on the next steps,’’ Manwa said.

Sources close to the goings-on at ZIFA, however, indicated that FIFA have resolved to let the association be administered by yet another Normalisation Committee.

The sources said the world body led by the pair of head of development programmes for Africa, Solomon Mudege and director Member Associations Africa, Gelson Fernandes, are currently finalising their list for the new leadership for ZIFA.

“FIFA had been hoping that the outgoing Normalisation Committee would have covered a lot of ground in terms of the tasks they were given when they were appointed last year.

“But to the disappointment of FIFA a lot of the work has not been done and ZIFA are not even ready for elections.

“The reforms have gone on at a very slow pace and for FIFA they are looking at having another Normalisation Committee, which they hope will do a better job and address the problems that have been at ZIFA,’’ the sources                                                                                                said.

Sources hinted that Harare banker Nigel Chanakira, could be tasked with heading the next Normalisation Committee.

“The names of who is being earmarked for the Normalisation Committee are still a closely guarded secret which only those in Switzerland know about.

“But there is a determination by FIFA to also make some amends by identifying a stronger team that will do far much better than what Lincoln Mutsa and his team have done,’’ the sources said.

Former Dynamos chairman Mutasa has largely been a failure in his mandate as Normalisation Committee boss, plunging ZIFA into the wilderness, instead of rescuing the game.

Mutasa was appointed along with fellow former footballers Rosemary Mugadza and Sikhumbuzo Ndebele onto the Normalisation Committee that also had young lawyer Nyasha Sanyamandwe and accountant Cynthia Malaba.

But as they look to leave office after next Sunday, Mutasa and his team will walk away from the corridors of power at ZIFA with little if anything to show for their tenure.

At the time of their appointment their terms of reference included:

 Running the daily affairs of ZIFA

 To restructure the ZIFA administration

 To establish with the help of FIFA, a collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Sport/the SRC and ZIFA, which will define the responsibilities and objectives of each party, including (but not exclusively) on the topic of sexual harassment

 To review the ZIFA statutes and electoral code to ensure their compliance with the FIFA statutes and ensure their adoption by the ZIFA Congress

 To act as an electoral committee in order to organise and conduct elections of a new ZIFA board based on the newly aligned ZIFA Statutes and electoral code and to ensure a proper financial handover to the new ZIFA board’’.

The Sports and Recreation Commission have maintained that they are still to sign any MOU with ZIFA as there are still some grey areas, which the country’s sport regulatory body will be hoping to iron out with Fernandes and Mudege.

  That the Normalisation Committee are coming to the end of their tenure without having convened an extraordinary meeting with the ZIFA Congress, suggests that a lasting solution to the Zimbabwe crisis remains a pipedream.

FIFA had emphasised the significance of involving Congress in the reform process but somehow, between July 2023 and June 2024, Mutasa found a way to avoid engaging the councillors and instead tried without success to set up a parallel structure fronted by a group that calls itself the Zimbabwe Football Stakeholders forum.