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NAMIBIAN Football Association secretary-general Barry Rukoro says he never manhandled COSAFA and ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa in Johannesburg last week and the duo’s fall-out was being exaggerated by those who want to see him punished for an act he didn’t commit.

Rukoro, who is Nigeria on official duty, denied any physical confrontation with Chiyangwa but said only a “heated exchange of words between two strong characters” took place in their hotel lobby.

He said NFA president Frans Mbidi has for the past few months been on a personal mission to get rid of him and was now using the incident to ensure his contract was not renewed.

“Mbidi has been gossiping and spreading lies about me and the entire NFA Exco at continental and sub-continental events,’’ Rukoro told New Era newspaper.

“He took a purely national matter to a sub-continental platform. The question is what does COSAFA have to do with what is purely an NFA labour issue?

‘’Apart from the fact that Mbidi went about gossiping and spreading lies about NFA internal affairs, COSAFA president Chiyangwa even went ahead to discuss this matter at a COSAFA Executive Committee meeting.

‘’That was completely out of order. Mbidi is going around telling people that he will not organise an NFA Exco meeting for fear that his letter to me may be reversed by the NFA Executive but he chose to seek support against me on the international fora.
‘’That is not only disrespecting the NFA Executive but also undermining the NFA and Namibia’s ability to deal with our own issues,” said Rukoro.

Mbidi was elected COSAFA vice-president at the poll in which Chiyangwa took over at the helm of the organisation on a five-year mandate two years ago.

“I was told by a COSAFA member that Mbidi, with the support of Chiyangwa, wants to deal with me and the NFA Executive and that Chiyangwa was ready to assist Mbidi in that regard,’’ said Rukoro.

‘’All I did was to confirm with Chiyangwa if the version I heard is indeed true and how he is planning to deal with me and the NFA Executive in a matter that does not in any way affect COSAFA.

‘’He confirmed to me that Mbidi is pumping him up with a lot of stories about me and the NFA Executive, which is apparently not supporting him to get rid of me.

‘’My discussion with Chiyangwa was a little heated but no scuffle took place. It is easy to establish if indeed there was anything like a scuffle or not as our discussion took place at the centre of the hotel lobby at lunch. How come nobody saw a scuffle.’’

A WhatsApp conversation between Chiyangwa and Football Association of Zambia boss Andrew Kamanga talked about an attack.

“We need to talk. Mbidi’s SG attacked me at the hotel,” Chiyangwa wrote to Kamanga, who responded “I saw that, and was wondering where it came from.’’

Rukoro is no stranger to controversy when it comes to Zimbabwean football leaders after having described the Cuthbert Dube ZIFA board as a ‘’leadership of fools,’’ during the fallout over Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet in 2010.

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Namibia then, Chipo Zindoga, was forced to write to her principals in Harare updating them on the diplomatic challenges posed by the fallout.

‘’The secretary-general of the Namibia Football Association, Barry Rukoro, has launched an all-out attack against the ZIFA board over the ‘poaching’ of Tom Saintfiet as the new Warriors coach,’’ wrote Zindoga.

‘’Rukoro, who has declared a war path against ZIFA, has indicated that NFA will lodge a formal complaint with FIFA against ZIFA for not adhering to the rules of football.

‘’NFA will also undertake to claim US$30 000 in compensation before releasing Saintfiet’s termination letter.’’
Zindoga also noted a change in stance by the NFA over the issue.

‘’While the NFA had previously lumped the blame on the Belgian born coach for breach of contract, the blame has now been shifted to the ZIFA board, whom Rukoro is referring to as ‘a leadership of fool’,’ wrote Zindoga.

‘’He is further quoted as saying, ‘they think they are untouchables and we are just going to fold our arms just because they are Zimbabweans.’

‘’The Saintfiet issue is certainly assuming political dimensions with far reaching political ramifications, which calls for prudent handling of the matter.’’ – Sports Reporter/New Era/The Namibian