adminLimukani Ncube Off the ball
IT has been a long and bumpy road for Cuthbert Dube and his board at the helm of the Zimbabwe Football Association. In fact, it’s like it has been more than four years since Dube took over the reins at Zifa, just a few months before the historic 2010 Fifa World Cup held on African soil for the first time in South Africa.
The atmosphere was different then. The mood was a happy one as everyone looked forward to the World Cup on African soil for the first time ever. There were lots of expectations from the nation, right from street vendors to executives that the country will also get some crumbs from the bread being eaten down South, but it was not to be.
Of course, some people, including myself, had the opportunity to cross the border to watch live a number of matches so that we become part of the history, and it was worth every cent spent.
Soon after the World Cup fever died down, Zifa were to engage in wars in various fronts, starting with a boardroom war that later spilled into the courts where a company that brought the Brazilian national team to the country just before the World Cup was demanding its dues – large amounts of money by the way – but there was no one to own up and say what was the arrangement and the matter is pending as we speak.
Then came in the burning issue of match fixing, and that was the beginning of serious rifts in Zimbabwean football that will take time to heal.
Serious rifts emerged because the Asiagate issue threatened the very livelihood of more than 100 football players, in addition to coaches and officials.
To many, it was a matter of life and death, and while Zifa took it within their stride to get to the bottom of the matter setting up a committee to investigate and prosecute those implicated, there still remains some flaws on the legal front and with Fifa seemingly not eager to endorse what they came up with, leaving Dube and his board with somewhat an egg on their faces.
But whatever Fifa or the courts say, it does not mean that Zifa were wrong to conduct an inquiry.
It does not mean that they were wrong in cleaning the game of bad apples who threw national team matches.
They were right, but there were other under currents which they were probably not alive to that have stopped them in their tracks on the legal or Fifa front, but such is life and most importantly, the message of good intent was heard.
Outgoing Zifa vice president Ndumiso Gumede told our sister paper B-Metro recently that he leaves office feeling a failed man because they could not conclude the Asiagate issue, calling on stakeholders to urge parliament to come up with legislation to curb corruption in sport, saying it proved difficult to nail down “match fixers” because they were not being supported by any clear law.
By his own admission, Asiagate was as good as dead, and we await to hear from what the new Zifa board to be ushered into office today will say once they resume duty.
While Asiagate took most of the time and resources for the national association, there also emerged another “gate”- Centralgate, which claimed the scalp of a number of board members, something which reduced the original lineup as the likes of Methembe Ndlovu, Kenny Marange, Gift Banda, Samukeliso Silengane, Solomon Mugavazi and Patrick Hokonya were suspended from the board along the way for either Asiagate or Centralgate alleged links.
What it means is that while Dube has to fight some kind of war with those who were allegedly benefiting from such corruption even if they were not in office, he had another cold war to fight with those he had suspended from the board, and to an extent, the run up to the elections has shown that with some board members who were suspended campaigning for his ouster.
There have been a lot of machinations in the week prior to the elections, friends have been lost, friends have been made as alliances are made or broken.
This is the time you should not be surprised to see hawks running with the chickens – it’s that time of the year – deception is the order of the day and surely, the person who said football is a gentlemen’s game run by thugs was right.
There are a lot of meetings held round the clock, in every corner of the country for that matter, and a lot of money is exchanging hands – we gather – and not forgetting the whopping $5,000 nomination fees for board members which led some candidates to become “proxies” put forward by some powerful forces behind the scenes who have the money to burn, and hoping once their stooges get to office, they will benefit from that one way or the other.
Otherwise why would they bother about Zifa elections since they are not part of them?
Nonetheless, apart from the boardroom battles that Dube had to fight, he had to contend with little support for the national teams, especially junior national teams – and when the business world came in numbers to support the Warriors to cross the last hurdle to qualify for the 2014 African Cup of Nations finals, after failing to make it for the previous edition with Dube in charge, lady luck did not smile on the nation as the boys froze in Angola and surrendered a healthy home advantage to bow out on goal aggregate.
That remains a dent on Dube and his board’s stay at the helm of the game, although some may argue that getting the final result rested on the players and their coaches as all was set for them – handsome winning bonuses, a chartered flight – and other niceties as the business world, led by Mbada Diamonds came to the fore.
Apart from the Warriors, the junior national teams also did not make any meaningful inroads in regional competitions and are a pale shadow of the Young Warriors of yester-years.
The Warriors only gave the nation something to smile about when they qualified for the Chan tournament held in South Africa early this year, where they went as far as the semi-finals.
While Dube and his crew had a nightmare on the field of play, where ordinarily, they should be judged upon, they did quite well on other fronts building the Zifa Village which now looks like real headquarters of a national association with lodgings, catering services, training field with artificial turf and a conference centre.
The president has also sacrificed a lot of his personal savings to keep Zifa and the Warriors going, despite heavy debts facing the national association.
So in the last four years, we have seen a lot, including Fifa president Sepp Blatter coming to the country, but today is the day of reckoning for Dube.
He has already suffered battering from the public court of morals from his share of controversy in the salarygate at leading organisations in the country, but football is a funny sport where leadership is chosen by just a few.
About 58 people will cast their votes today and what they decide is what the rest of the nation has to contend with for the next four years.
Dube goes back to the ring with Leslie Gwindi, whom be beat hands down in the last election, but the ball is round and keeps rolling, and this time around, there are other players -Nigel Munyati and Trevor Carelse-Juul who want the hot seat.
Should Dube win, he will certainly not have Gumede by his side, he will have either Omega Sibanda or Elkanah Dube, both ambitious characters from Bulawayo, who go into the ring from different backgrounds and backed by different groups – the ballot will decide who takes the crown. So whatever the case, Bulawayo will get the VP post..LOL.
Five men have set their eyes on winning the four slots left for board members.
There is John Phiri, Bernard Gwarada, Bulawayo’s Tavengwa Hara, Francis Zimunya, and Gladmore Muzambi.
May the best men win and take our game forward. At least, madness is over.
Election time at Zifa really makes some people, including the media, lose their minds at times.
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Online Reporter