adminDear Robson.
I thought it would be great just to reflect and give an insight to my long time friend and respected godfather of our most beautiful game.Our love-and-hate relationship goes back to the days of 1996, when I was the Chairman of Arcadia United who were at that time playing in zifa Division One. I recall losing promotion to the Premier League by a whisker after the last match of the season, played against Jumbo Giants, ended in a stalemate.
You will recall that Arcadia United played in the Premiership the following year after die hard supporters wrestled the franchise of Grain Tigers. I was not part of the leadership that took control of the club. The long and short of it all is that I continued with my passion by joining a social club whom I took to Ndola, Zambia, my foster country, to participate in social friendly matches.
I was recalled to lead Arcadia United in 1998 and then decided to be my own master by purchasing the franchise of Blackpool in December 1999.
Motor Action, popularly known as the Mighty Bulls, played in the Premier Soccer League from the 2000 season until the club was relegated last year as a result of its achievements in the 2010 and 2011 seasons that effectively drained its resources.
I recall many praises that you endowed upon me and the club and equally remember the bad times with the criticism that you heaped on my shoulders, not forgetting your comments on the nasty racism allegations, the episode that you believe culminated in the relegation of Amazulu just to give credence to the stolen points awarded to CAPS United.
Your choreography and decorated pre-election report won the day at the last general meeting in 2010 for Twine Phiri to win the PSL chairmanship after a stalemate in the first round of voting.
Perhaps your wishes have been answered and you have won the day as you stated that “what goes around comes around”. All the same I know that I have put smiles on some faces while I am naturally disappointed to leave a Premiership that has become my passion after being relegated with the assistance of the black boot of my compatriots.
There is a sense of regret that the Premiership gets underway today and, for the first time in 15 years, the Mighty Bulls won’t be part of the show.
I now know that I faced the biggest challenge in my football career and erred in persisting to obtain a post on the executive committee, after losing the chairmanship post, all in the hope of changing the fortunes of the game.
The past two years have been a holocaust in my life to the extent of hating my passion as I was the black sheep in the family who at most times pulled in a different direction from the executive family.
Absolutely nothing has really changed in the elite league apart from the rich pickings and the lavish lifestyles that are enjoyed by the privileged few in the Executive Committee and Secretariat while the clubs and their players wallow in poverty.
It is a scenario that is not very different and can be likened to the widely publicised “Salarygate Scandals”.
I am utterly disappointed at the treatment meted out against me to the extent of being denied minutes of an Executive Committee Meeting held on Friday 22nd November 2013 and the Board of Governors Meeting held on Saturday December 7th 2013, that I attended in my capacity as the Board Member Marketing.
Several written requests have been ignored by the Executive Committee and, in particular, Kennedy Ndebele the CEO of the top-flight league.
I have informed them of the importance of the documentation, which includes financial issues, as it will provide me the opportunity to finalise all issues pertaining to the club’s participation in the league including my tenure as the Board Member Marketing. This situation forced me to seek redress from the High Court of Zimbabwe by making a court application to order the Premier Soccer League to provide the documentation in accordance with the statutes of the constitution.
I have often gagged myself to avoid tarnishing the league in an effort to avoid bringing the game into disrepute.
Circumstances have proven my actions to be folly as transparency, accountability and corporate governance have clearly been lacking, or have been thrown out of the window, during my tenure as the Board Member Marketing.
I wish to highlight just a few issues that might raise a few eyebrows but will be of some assistance to those that cherish the game, including the multitude of supporters that have made football the number one sport in our country.
The Game, The Spirit And The Boardroom
Just like our relationship, football has brought me many other friends and some foes, like Leslie Gwindi, that some have labelled as a strange bedfellow, who I recently defended as a witness in the allegations made against him for bringing the game into disrepute.
My ethics and conscience and the principles of natural justice found it necessary to defend him as the matter was directed by the Secretariat in conjunction with the Chairman to zifa without the knowledge or consensus of the Executive Committee of PSL. Similar issues were previously debated upon within the PSL structures and concluded without any adverse publicity. I stand by my conscience that the matter was all about victimisation and banishing him from throwing his hat into the ring for the zifa elections.
At the last Meeting of the Executive Committee held during the latter part of the year, the Chairman outrageously demanded an apology from me for attending the disciplinary hearing as a witness.
I stood by my conviction and declined to make any such apology.
We should also not forget Cuthbert Mutandwa who was summarily ejected out of his seat and forced into early retirement on full salary and benefits until the expiry of his contract for compiling a dossier that rightly reprimanded and shamed the operations of the league.
The report opened a can of worms on events that were undertaken in complete disregard of transparency and corporate governance. The PSL coffers are being drained through maladministration and failure to adhere to the principles of natural justice.
His untimely ejection is now subject to an Arbitration hearing and will summarily lead to more funds being siphoned as a result of poor management decisions or perhaps a sole decision ordinarily done in small to medium privately owned enterprises.
Robson, I sincerely thank you and your team for the great farewell that you gave to Liz and myself in a two-page article in The Saturday Herald on November 16 2013, that left me in tears of joy unlike my colleagues in the PSL who have banished me just like a heap of garbage for being outspoken during my tenure.
I did not know or hardly thought that the relegation of the club would be treated in the same fashion as a suspension or a ban from the league in complete violation of the statutes of the constitution just to fulfil the egos of those that are desperate to hang on to their portfolios.
To the best of my knowledge this is the first era in which football has received such remarkable sponsorship from the corporate world whose benefits have largely been channelled towards the Secretariat. The league sponsorship is almost shared equally between the clubs on one hand and the secretariat and awards ceremony on the other hand.
The Secretariat, whose members comprise a mere one percent of the persons who are directly or indirectly employed by the clubs, is also fortunate to obtain funding from all knockout tournaments as well as the SuperSport Agreement.
They are also entitled to 10 percent of the gate takings from all matches and have also benefitted from funds derived from touchline advertising; text messages and even gobbled monies from fines for the various offences meted out to the clubs and robbed them of a 2 percent levy that is deducted from the net gate takings.
It is a shame to state that our league cannot put any value to its image as it does not even own a vehicle and is virtually surviving on a hand to mouth basis due to its large appetite for various forms of allowances and misappropriation of funds largely as a result of maladministration.
The Issues That Haunted My Conscience
I will briefly summarise matters that need the immediate attention from the Board of Governors:
The Audited Financial Statements have been compiled promptly on a yearly basis but cannot be published due to variances that exist with sponsorship fees.
Despite receiving adequate sponsorship and other forms of income, PSL has failed to remit levies timeously that are collected from the gate takings to the Sports Commission and zifa which has resulted in these bodies collecting their dues directly from the cashiers offices. This situation has arisen through lack of trust and accountability and will no doubt be the seed of corruption in the future.
Motor Action were denied its share from the 2 percent levy that is deducted from gate takings to assist clubs that participate in the caf tournaments and the minutes explicitly state that “the CEO advised the member that there were no funds as the money was used to run the league operations.”
The League is sitting on a time bomb as Executive Committee Meetings are held irregularly and impromptu especially in the past year without the provision of any Management Accounts for the entire year. Prior to the employment of the bookkeeper and the introduction of the Pastel Accounting System, a step in the right direction, the Management Accounts were provided timeously at the Executive Committee Meetings that were held on a monthly basis by Cuthbert Mutandwa, the Finance and administration Manager.
The secretariat has failed to fulfil its legal mandate to the Fiscal Authority such as remittance of value added tax that is derived from gate takings, and other obligations that include withholding and presumptive tax on benefits and allowances that can be appropriately called the “PSLAllowanceGate Syndrome”.
Prior to the formation of the Board of Governors and the Secretariat, Audited Accounts were presented by the Accounting Firm that undertook the audit. The 2011 Financial Audited Accounts that were prepared by Grant Thornton Camelsa while I was Acting Board Member Finance were presented by the CEO to the Board of Governors Special General Meeting with significant changes made to the document.
Of concern was an amount “Advances to Clubs” that was deleted and included under “Levies” for balancing purposes. My name under the list of Executive Committee as the Acting Board Member Finance was removed and replaced with Harrison Mbewe (resigned Sep 2011) as well as my authenticating signature on the document was replaced with Kennedy Ndebele.
Motor Action obtained a loan from the league, for the first time in its 14-year flirtation in the league, to fulfill the last game played against Hwange. The US$2 000 loan was summarily deducted from the US$5 000 Prize Money awarded for its participation in the 2013 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League. We applaud the award which is greatly appreciated whilst it is in itself a pittance after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate and administer a team in the elite league.
During the past year the league has been operating without a Board Member Legal Affairs as a result of strained relations over the re-appointment of the CEO whose contract was renewed in a dodgy and clandestine manner, in sharp contrast to the resolution made at Executive Committee Meetings held on 28th October 2012 and 9th November 2012 and in conflict with the statutes of the Constitution.
At these meetings it was resolved that the Chairman would place advertisements for a full-time CEO in the media houses and lure potential candidates from within and outside Zimbabwe. The Constitution, whose statutes are fully known by the current CEO, were breached as the Executive Committee were not privy to his appointment including the terms and conditions of employment. Twine Phiri confirmed concluding the contract on his own accord at the behest of the sponsors. His contract of employment is simply not consistent with the principles of corporate governance, null and void and of no legal effect.
A Premier League Of Secrets
I am completely in the dark and most likely some clubs might also be in the same position regarding the appointment of persons or the legal authority that undertook the compilation of the new constitution.
The recently adopted constitution was effectively made in hell through kith and kin, or with birds of a feather that flock together and friends that stick together as thick as thieves.
The constitution has literally enhanced and given powers to the Chairman and Secretariat to control the aims and objectives of the league at their will.
It just doesn’t make sense to replace an Executive Committee with one that is called an Emergency Committee thereby wittingly replacing the authority and jurisdiction of the clubs with the Secretariat. The Emergency Committee will be still borne just like the Standing Committees, and as an example, the Marketing Committee that fell under my portfolio met on one occasion only over a period of three years.
Surely, this is a reversal and an about turn that will make a mockery of amending the structures of the league from the previous elected Management Committee to a Board of Governors and now cunningly replacing it with employees, of a Secretariat, that are already enjoying, manipulating, abusing and effectively lining their pockets from the sweat of the clubs, its employees the technical staff and players, as well as their supporters.
Two decades back top-flight football clubs were effectively owned by corporate companies that literally vanished through poor governance and damage to their reputation and image.
Control of the league was, thereafter, retained by individuals and small to medium owned companies that brought back some dignity and prestige to the game. Like Francis Zimunya, Delma Lupepe, Cuthbert Dube, Thomas Mapfumo, Binali Yard, and Cuthbert Chitima just too many to mention, we have all fallen by the wayside through the enormous financial challenges that are required to operate and fund a club in a professional manner without any tangible sponsorship.
At least, we have wooed the corporate world back into the game but it will only be a temporary situation as they will once again vanish with the corruption that is inevitable through the new constitution.
A recent editorial in a daily newspaper can be likened to the direction that PSL has taken by effectively handing power to the Secretariat and yet for all intent and purposes the Clubs and their Board of Governors are their bosses because they make their jobs and not the other way around.
They come first and the Secretariat comes second. If the CEO has outgrown his role he should resign and throw his hat into the Board of Governors ring to compete with them toe-to-toe in all debates instead of doing so under the guise of being the CEO. The Board of Governors should clip his wings before corruption becomes their number one enemy.
On a closing note it is imperative for the owners and sponsors of the clubs to revisit the constitution as it is likely that it was adopted through the usual ambush tactics without giving the Board of Governors ample time to peruse and digest its contents. The incentives to lure sponsorship have been a matter of discussion in numerous meetings over the entire period of my tenure in the Executive Committee.
At the Executive Committee Meeting held in November 2013, the CEO confirmed completion of the draft document that will be furnished to the Executive Committee Members and the appropriate Authorities.
Most countries in the world have promulgated tax incentives in many different ways that have resulted in lucrative sponsorship agreements for the sporting fraternity while the fiscal authorities have derived resources from taxation through the improved livelihood of the national teams, clubs and its personnel, including individual sports.
Government must play its own role by providing a budget that will be utilised for developmental purpose.
Corporate Governance is key to its implementation and success by just beginning with the provision of financial accounts from all professional clubs and individuals.
Robson, I know that you have an immense passion for the most beautiful game of football and that you and your team will continue to give your moral support and criticise all the wrongs in the spirit of driving football to greater heights that will bring pride to the nation and its number one sport supporters.
Over and Out!
To God Be The Glory
Come on Liverpool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Suarezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
You can contact Eric Rosen for feedback on: [email protected].
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