adminRay Bande Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Warriors skipper Moses Chunga appears to have a different opinion over what should happen to Cuthbert Dube and the current Zifa board.He believes the disbandment of the current Zifa board and the subsequent ban from Fifa will not help exorcise the demons that have left Zimbabwe’s football in the doldrums.
Key stakeholders in the country’s football industry opposed to the Cuthbert Dube administration have been on an offensive in recent weeks, demanding the immediate disbandment of the current Zifa board for remaining aloof while our football standards have sunk to new depths. Sports, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister, Thabetha Kanengoni-Malinga, set the tone with a scathing attack on the Zifa leadership during last Wednesday’s Parliament session.
In a bid to gain protection from the world soccer governing body, Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, then wrote to Fifa complaining about Government interference with his association’s operations, thereby provoking a response from Fifa which highlighted that the country risks being banned from the world family of football playing nations if Government decides and goes ahead to interfere with Zifa operations.
On Wednesday morning, Post Sport tracked down Chunga at the Mutare Showgrounds where his Buffaloes outfit is quietly going about their pre-season preparations and the maverick gaffer did not mince his words as he warned against risking being banned by Fifa.
Himself a fierce critic of Zifa and how business has been handled at No. 53 Livingstone Avenue over the years, Chunga said while he was not also happy with the state of the game in the country, Government’s disbandment of Zifa and the foreseeable ban from international football will do us more harm than good.
Chunga was quick to note that some of the so-called critics calling for the dissolution of Zifa are being motivated by selfish intentions veiled under purported love of the game.
“It is good that at least some people are seeing what we have been crying about all along until some of us were labelled outspoken, but I do not think it is proper that we should urge Government to disband Zifa and let Fifa ban us from the international football community. It will not help us in any way.
“We need to think beyond individuals and start taking a holistic approach to redress the situation. After all, some are singling out Dube as an individual. He did not place himself in that position. It is the entire system that we should seek to correct and instil a true football culture typical of Zimbabwe of the olden days.
“People calling for Government disbandment of Zifa are doing so because they are not in this industry and do not survive from this industry. Some of us look at football as an industry, while others unfortunately do not.
“We still have time without any international engagements hence that is the time we should be sitting down and map out a strict developmental path to be followed by all rather than disband Zifa and get banned for a number of years that might see us return to international football in 2020 or so. I do not think it is proper and healthy for our game.
On the way forward, Chunga said: “People need to be honest to each other in their approach if we are to develop.
Real stakeholders in the game, not those so-called stakeholders that we always hear being called to the so-called indabas need to be called to sit down and map the way forward.”
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