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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIFA president Felton Kamambo will lead a strong delegation from the association expected to fly out to Johannesburg today for a capacity-building and benchmarking interactive workshop at the South African Football Association this week.

The symposium is scheduled for February 20-22.

Kamambo has been on a crusade to change some of the approaches which ZIFA use to tackle their administrative challenges and the move to learn first-hand from their SAFA counterparts is set to be hailed as a step in the right direction.

The ZIFA boss will be accompanied by members of his board, key figures in the secretariat and representatives of the country’s four regions.

Kamambo, fresh from a FIFA indaba in Turkey has, since coming into office, indicated he would want to interact with more of the game’s stakeholders at home and abroad.

Today the ZIFA president and his delegation will head to SAFA, one of the best run associations on the continent who not only have the financial muscle, but have gained invaluable experience from staging such high-profile tournaments like the 2010 World Cup, the African Cup of Nations, CHAN and COSAFA Cup competitions.

“The purpose of the trip is for capacity building and benchmarking. We intend to use the trip to capacitate our excom members, secretariat and assembly members,’’ Kamambo said.

“This is just the beginning of such visits, to associations we deem to be currently ahead of us. As you are aware that SAFA is known for best football administration practices in Africa, we want to learn from the best.

“I am very optimistic that this trip will be beneficial for the growth and development of football in Zimbabwe.

“We will use this to establish areas of cooperation between ZIFA and SAFA. We will also negotiate for friendly matches and not only for Men’s teams but for Women’s teams as well.’’

The ZIFA delegation will get an opportunity to learn and discuss from SAFA on how best to tackle challenges involved in key areas of the game, which include:

Competitions

Commercial and marketing

Legal and compliance

Communications

Integrity.

Technical issues which are also important drivers of the game will be tabled amid revelations by Kamambo that they will discuss with their SAFA counterparts on issues related to:

Referees

Coaching

Women football

Football development.

“This signals a serious intent to change and embrace best business practices and the results must be there for all to see.

“It’s not an adventure for leisure but a commitment underpinned by a desire to take our football to the next level, and we owe this to our players and the fans’’.

ZIFA, Kamambo also said they were still looking to hold an induction workshop that is traditionally held and funded by FIFA for the executive committee members.

“I was privileged to have served under the previous executive. It was at this point that I observed some gaps in our performance,’’ said Kamambo.

“My continued scanning of the environment has shown that the gap continues to worsen. It is at this point that, as an executive, we agreed that benchmarking is the best way to go.

“This approach is designed to overcome, paradigm blindness, where we continue to do the same things because that’s what we are accustomed to.

“This trip will open ZIFA to new methods, ideas, and tools to improve our effectiveness.

“This visit exceeds the purview of a mere induction programme for the executive committee. It’s more of an admission by the leadership that we are way behind our colleagues within the region.’’