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imbabwe’s senior national team is without some of the star players who were playing for Monomotapa and the Warriors between 2007 and 2010. The players are accused of having taken part in tours to Asia where they were paid to lose gams.
The scandal has already claimed the scalps of former Zifa employees who include Henrietta Rushwaya who was chief executive officer and programmes manager Jonathan Musavengana.
In an interview yesterday morning, Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze, said Zifa were anxious to see the Asiagate issue concluded. He said the issue had dragged for far too long and had affected Zimbabwean football.
Mashingaidze said the findings will be made public this week to allow the national team coaches led by Gumbo to consider some of the players who might be cleared. Sources close to Zifa said some of the players would be banned for life while others would have to pay heavy fines for their part in the scandal.
Gumbo and his colleagues have had to do without defensive linkman Mthulisi Maphosa as he was part of Monomotapa’s team that took part in the 2009 African Champions League where it is believed some of his club coaches and players deliberately lost matches. Maphosa did not travel with the team to Malaysia where it posed as the Zimbabwe national team.
He, however, played in the Champions League and in one match he came to blows with assistant coach Clayton Munemo whom he accused together with other players of plotting to lose matches. Nyasha Mushekwi, Ovidy Karuru, Thomas Sweswe and Method Mwanjali are some of the big names that have been missing from the Warriors team.
Several outstanding local players like Daniel Vheremu and Tafadzwa Dube have also been left out of national teams for the same reason.
“We want the coach to have the best players at his disposal. If there are some players who are exonerated, we hope Gumbo would consider using them for the 14 October match against Angola. We want the best team available to represent us and that is the reason why we are insisting that the report should be out this week,” said Mashingaidze.
The ethics committee has missed several deadlines to release its report and the latest deadline was 8 August 2012.
“Obviously the nation is anxious to know the committee’s findings. The chapter has to be closed so that we move on to the next stage which is prevention since this scourge is a threat to the game,” said Mashingaidze.
A member of the investigating committee however said Zimbabwe could get a half-baked product. He said more time was needed if thorough investigations were to be carried out.
“We had very little time for this and as a result not much ground could be covered. There are some instances where we are still gathering evidence. It has not been easy as a majority of all those spoken to have not been as forthcoming as we would have loved. Our other worry is that making the report public now could prejudice further investigations. On the positive side making the report public could encourage some with information to come forward,” said a member of the ethics committee
Last week Zifa president Cuthbert Dube expressed concern at the delay by the committee to release the report given the fact that it was gobbling $10 000 a week.
Local clubs and those based in South Africa want to know the outcome of the report.
Player agents and clubs abroad have been reluctant to engage
Zimbabwean players until the finalisation of the investigations whose outcome could result in some players being banned for life.
Emmanuel Chimwanda a former member of the Zimbabwe Republic Police serious fraud section has taken over as head of the ethics committee after Justice Ahmed Ebrahim left for the US.
There have been fears that some members of the investigating team have been compromised with allegations that one of them received funding to make improvements to his house from some Asiagate interested parties.
The ethics committee has said the delay is as a result of printers still working on the document.
Zifa will take credit for its bold move to institute investigations into Asiagate as part of measures to fight corruption in the game.
Online Reporter