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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter

THE ZIFA leadership are set to hold their final meeting tomorrow to wind up deliberations on the roadmap that should guide the association in their quest to have Zimbabwe’s suspension lifted by FIFA.

The interactions, which started last week, are expected to come up with a working document that should be acceptable to all the football stakeholders.

ZIFA are keen to implement football reforms that have been suggested by the ZIFA Restructuring Committee as well as the recommendations made by the ZIFA Constitutional Review Committee.

The association’s acting chief executive officer Xolisani Gwesela yesterday told The Herald the deliberations were going on well.

“We will have another meeting on Wednesday and from there we hope to come up with the road map that should guide us in the implementation process of the reforms,” said Gwesela.

The Restructuring Committee, which was set up by the Sports and Recreation Commission in December 2021 as part of the strategic roadmap towards addressing the issues that have affected football management and administration in Zimbabwe for many years, has since compiled a comprehensive report which is now in the public domain.

The committee noted that the “outdated” ZIFA constitution needed major amendments, among the major reforms.

ZIFA is currently under FIFA suspension.

However, the association’s acting president Gift Banda assured the nation that the suspension will be lifted “soon” after all the reforms had been implemented to the satisfaction of the wider football constituency, including CAF and FIFA.

“ZIFA is fully committed to develop football despite the obvious challenges and I can assure you that it won’t be long before we return to international football,” he said while addressing the coaches who attended the CAF A Licence refresher course that ended in Harare at the weekend.

“But as we return to international football, we need to be ready . . . and it is our hope and wish that as we return to international football we will be a better association.

“And, I promise you, as I said before, that we are working on it tirelessly that in the not-so-distant future we are going to find ourselves there,” said Banda.

Zimbabwean football is currently in the doldrums following the decision by the FIFA Council to pull the plug on ZIFA’s membership rights on February 24 last year in response to the chaos in the country’s football administration.

In fact, FIFA suspended Zimbabwe and Kenya at the same time citing “third party interference” in the administration of the game following the suspension of the scandal-hit leadership at the two countries’ football associations.

Both nations were concerned by the state of decay in football administration following allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

The rot at ZIFA led to the suspension of the ZIFA leadership led by Felton Kamambo in November 2021 by the Sports and Recreation Commission.

The suspended football executives were accused of misappropriating public funds during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals, corruption as well as allegations of sexual harassment of female referees.

Kamambo and some members of his ousted executive are still facing court charges over fraud and bribery.

Some members of the suspended executive who included Barbara Chikosi and Farai Jere and Sugar Chagonda were reinstated last year.

But Kamambo and two other members Bryton Malandule and Philemon Machana, who are still battling to clear their names at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts, have since been kicked out of office in a vote of no confidence by the ZIFA Congress.

Similarly, in Kenya, the country’s sports ministry had disbanded the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) over alleged misappropriation of funds and appointed a caretaker committee in November 2021.

The federation’s president, Nick Mwendwa, was subsequently arrested and charged with misappropriation of funds from FIFA and the government. He has pleaded not guilty.

New Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba last November announced the reinstatement of the federation executives but warned former leader Mwendwa, who is facing corruption charges, not to return to the KFK until the case was concluded.

FKF vice-president Doris Petra has been acting as president for the past 17 months, just like in Zimbabwe where ZIFA vice-president Banda has been running the association.

Kenya, however, have been reinstated by FIFA following the lifting of the KFK suspension by the country’s sports ministry in November. Zimbabwe have said they need to put structures first before approaching FIFA.

The Sports Commission have said the ball is now in ZIFA’s court after they had completed the exercise that was spearheaded by the ZIFA Restructuring Committee. The discourse among the Zimbabwean football faithful had centred around the reinstatement of Kamambo. However, in response to the calls to reinstate Kamambo, Sports Commission chairman Gerald Mlotshwa said the regulator cannot intervene in the internal affairs of ZIFA.

The Sports Commission last year reinstated most of the board members and general-secretary Joseph Mamutse, who however refused to return to office. Kamambo and the other ex-board members Malandule and Machana have since been recalled by a ZIFA Congress.

“It is a fact that Mr Felton Kamambo is no longer the ZIFA president, having been recalled by his own congress. It follows, logically, that the SRC is not able to reinstate him to that position.

“Any such attempt would, ironically, be blatantly unlawful in terms of ZIFA’s current constitution, as well as the Sports and Recreation Commission Act.

“It is most regrettable that certain legislators continue to demand the SRC ignore the resolutions of the ZIFA Congress, violate ZIFA’s constitution, and, incredibly, its own Act, a product of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, in reinstating Mr Kamambo.

“Some sports journalists, documented beneficiaries of the aero-junket that was AFCON 2019, gleefully continue to propagate these misguided, if not unlawful, demands, in willful dereliction of their obligation, as members of the Fourth Estate, to inform and advise the public objectively. Indeed, a journalist without objectivity is simply an activist.

“There is, therefore, no legal basis upon which ZIFA or, indeed, the SRC can request Mr Kamambo and Mr Mamutse to correspond with FIFA, nor can the latter organisation, in light of its views on the outcome of the EGM of April 2022 demand the same of those persons.

“If anything, it is perhaps the correct, if not patriotic, thing to do for these recalled ZIFA Executive Committee members and the suspended general secretary to formally advise FIFA that they no longer hold office. They owe this nation an apology,” said Mlotshwa.