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According to remarks made yesterday by Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Issa Hayatou in an exclusive interview with Zimpapers at the end of the continental body’s eighth extraordinary general assembly held here this week, the dossier containing wide-ranging investigations into allegations that surfaced between 2007 and 2009 when the Warriors played a series of friendly internationals in Asia, has now been completed.
Hayatou said Cuthbert Dube, the Zifa president, had told him during their meeting after the congress that the Asiagate issue had been concluded and the report would be handed over today.
Hayatou, who was flanked by DR Congo Football Association president Omari Selemani, who is also a Caf executive committee member, met Dube for about two hours in the former’s hotel villa on Tuesday evening.
The Caf boss was responding to a question concerning the purpose of his discussions with his Zifa counterpart.
“When he came he talked about the situation in Zimbabwe football, what is happening in the game especially relating to the (Asiagate) match-fixing issue. And he says that maybe Thursday (today) the report, that is, the committee doing the report, will release it to the nation of Zimbabwe, the Government and also to the federation (Zifa),” said Hayatou.
Dube, who is scheduled to arrive back in Harare from Seychelles this morning, could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
The Zifa president also paid a courtesy call on Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Tuesday, although details of the latter meeting have so far not been divulged.
Hayatou went on to say his organisation would see what assistance to give to Zifa once the report is out.
“Maybe after that Caf will see the consistency of the report and we will decide how to assist,” he said.
The Justice Ebrahim committee, appointed last year, is deemed to be the final stage into a lengthy process that began soon after Dube’s board took office in 2010 and appointed another commission led by Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede to carry out enquiries into how the matches could have been fixed.
Gumede’s report led to more than 100 players being barred from national duty until completion of investigations while five members of the Zifa board were also suspended after being fingered in either the Asiagate report or in a parallel match-fixing exercise that took place locally and has been dubbed Centralgate.
Earlier, Dube warned that both the Asiagate and Centralgate reports would be a “bombshell” and has hinted at life bans for some of the culprits.
Online Reporter