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Eddie Chikamhi-Senior Sports Reporter

THE Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry, says there have been some positive movements in regard to domestic football reforms following the release of the ZIFA Restructuring Committee report which contains detailed recommendations for the envisaged total transformation of football in this country.

Coventry yesterday told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation that football stakeholders have made headway towards bringing sanity into the domestic game.

The recommendations have since been conveyed to the relevant football leaders at ZIFA for consideration at their next Annual General Meeting. The ZIFA Congress will also vote whether to adopt the recommendations or not.    

Coventry said the Sports Commission, which had mandated the Restructuring Committee to carry out the year-long exercise under the provisions of the SRC Act, is set to brief her fully on the latest developments next week.

“I’m sure you would have seen the points given at the press conference last week from the SRC chairman on the points that were given to the board from the Restructuring Committee. 

“Those points have been shared and have been put across,” said Coventry.

The report by the Restructuring Committee is a product of broader consultative processes with football stakeholders, during which engagement was sought from a general football audience to obtain insights into the state of football at various levels.

The common sentiment among the stakeholders was that the game was suffering because of institutional challenges at ZIFA House.

The Restructuring Committee unearthed a chain of anomalies ranging from the flawed and outdated ZIFA constitution, skewed electoral processes, the lack of proficiency by office holders, manipulation of football governance systems, corruption, financial mismanagement, lack of development strategies and the wanton disregard of the needs of women’s football.

It also emerged the majority of the stakeholders engaged by the Restructuring Committee were in agreement that Zimbabwean football needed a reboot.

The Restructuring Committee compiled detailed findings and made some key recommendations the game could adopt in order to get out of the current quagmire.

Key among the recommendations was the adoption of a new constitution and the election of credible candidates to run football affairs at ZIFA.

“I am meeting with the SRC board next week. They have asked to come through and give me a full briefing. Once I have received that full briefing from them, I can then come to you on those specific points.

“But at this point in time there has been some good movement with our national football. All the various stakeholders are working with the SRC in trying to come up with solutions on how to move forward.

“At the end of the day, what we want to be able to see from our Zimbabwe football federation (ZIFA), is the commitment to developing our sport, protecting our athletes and good corporate governance.

“And that’s really what you will see also from the recommendations that have come from the Restructuring advisory committee,” said Coventry.

However, the parliamentarians expressed their worries over Zimbabwe’s prolonged suspension by FIFA.

Zimbabwe’s membership was suspended in February last year after the global football motherbody overruled that the suspension of the ZIFA board by the Sports Commission constituted third party interference.

As a result, the nation has missed out on various FIFA and CAF approved football tournaments for both men and women during the last 12 months. ZIFA was also cut off from accessing FIFA development grants and excluded from all development programmes.

Mathias Tongofa, who is the chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, said they will invite the Sports Commission to update the Parliament on the direction Zimbabwean football is taking.  

The Chivi North Member of Parliament said the reform process should be expedited so that national teams and local clubs are not left behind on global and continental football.

“We have been watching other teams playing in continental tournaments such as CHAN and our country is not there. How far have we gone? We are still in the dark as a committee,” he said.

“I think we are going to call the SRC so that they will enlighten us with regards to what is happening in the sports sector.

“We are starting a new season in sport and clubs would want to know, if they are champions, whether they are going to participate with other champions on the continent. They are not clear about that,” said Tongofa.