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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

STAKEHOLDERS from the domestic football leadership are set to convene in Harare this Friday to come up with a roadmap that should usher the game back on the path to recovery as part of the process towards Zimbabwe’s return to international football a more robust entity.

The meeting, which comes on the day exactly a year after ZIFA were ex-communicated from the FIFA family in a tragic culmination of the mounting administrative challenges, is key for the domestic game in many ways.

Acting ZIFA president Gift Banda yesterday told The Herald that representatives from various football constituencies that form the ZIFA members will put their heads together as they “unpack” the recommendations proposed by the ZIFA Restructuring Committee.

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 handed a comprehensive report which is now in the public domain. The meeting of football stakeholders is expected to come up with a working document that should guide the football reforms to get the game kicking again and guide towards reinstatement of ZIFA’s membership at FIFA.

Banda said the gathering will also take time to analyse the different recommendations from the ZIFA Constitutional Review Committee and the ZIFA Executive Committee.

“Basically, we are going to be unpacking the document that has been produced by the ZIFA Restructuring Committee, putting everything in its rightful place. So we are saying, we have our national constitution as a country, what does it say?

“We have the FIFA constitution that we need to follow, what does it say? We have the recommendations from the Restructuring Committee, what do they say?

“We have the ZIFA constitution in its current form, what does it say? We have the recommendations from the ZIFA Constitutional Review Committee, what do they say? Remember we had started doing the constitutional review long before the Restructuring Committee had come in.

“So we are also going to be considering the submissions that have already been done,” said Banda. Zimbabwe are currently suspended from participating in FIFA and CAF sanctioned football activities. The football reforms are key for the game to return stronger. Among the reforms expected before approaching FIFA, ZIFA should ensure that the new constitution states that the laws of Zimbabwe take precedence over all other rules and regulations of ZIFA.

It also recommends that the constitution should bar public office holders from running for ZIFA office to avoid actual and perceived conflicts of interests, or politicising the association for personal glory.

Further recommended is the rationalisation of the powers of the ZIFA president, the conferring of explicit authority on the General Secretary to manage the day-to-day affairs of ZIFA.

In so far as office bearers are concerned, the recommendations are that there should be a minimum threshold of qualifications to become an Executive Committee member.

The committee also recommended that the national teams should be housed in a structure that receives direct budgetary and administrative support from the Government whilst ensuring that FIFA rules are respected in so far as the principle of non- interference is concerned. With regards to junior football, the committee recommended that ZIFA should develop a standardised system to rate academy programmes and school programmes, and develop a national database for all junior players that is functional and easily accessible.

Additionally, ZIFA should develop and support quality leagues and competitions accessible for all ages and skill levels.

Women’s football was not left out as the committee felt the constituency should be empowered to manage their own affairs in football and be included at all levels of the game’s administration on a quota system.

The Committee also stressed that ZIFA invest in senior business strategy and marketing positions. In fact, ZIFA should have competent marketing and communication departments and be run as a business, not as a fiefdom or cabal. Office bearers, administrators and coaches must have minimal CAF and FIFA qualifications and/or training. Coaching standards must be set and regulated.

“It’s of paramount importance that let us not pre-empt things,” said Banda.

“Some football people are talking about certain things that they want to see but we would want to be holistic in our approach so that we don’t want to go on a futile exercise with either the national constitution or the FIFA constitution.

“We would need to consider everything that is why I said we are now going to unpack the Restructuring Committee report and its recommendations. We unpack point by point, to say what falls where so that we put it where it is supposed to be,” said Banda.

“Soon after that we are going to be keeping in liaison with the SRC so that we move in one direction. Up to now we have been working closely with the SRC and we are understanding where they are coming from and they are understanding where we are coming from.

“That’s why I said allow us to go through the workshop and come up with a proper document that will inform our roadmap going forward,” said Banda. ZIFA are responsible for the implementation of the roadmap, to the satisfaction of the football family. Afterwards, FIFA would be engaged with the view to have the ban, which was imposed on February 24 last year, lifted. The local football mother body are expected to call an even bigger meeting after Friday’s workshop to reach out to the wider audience of the football stakeholders.

“The AGM is still outstanding but I think that you appreciate that all these matters we are talking about, most of them are matters are supposed to go and be discussed at the AGM. We want to go to the AGM when we have exhausted all the things in our in-tray so that when we will be going forward there in so no going forth and backwards.

“Our AGM is only a convocation away, which is about 14 days. That is why we are trying our level best to come up with a solid road map that is going to satisfy all the stakeholders, having considered all their submissions because we are a listening board,” said Banda.