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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter—
FORMER Zifa chairman, Trevor Carelse-Juul, who is seeking a return to the biggest football post in the country, says Fifa president Sepp Blatter encouraged him to come back into football. Carelse-Juul made the claim yesterday afternoon when he addressed Bulawayo journalists at a Press conference to drum up support for his candidature.
“I had a talk with Blatter where I told him what needs to be done to develop African football.
“He even said it would be nice to have me back in football,” said Carelse-Juul who will square off with incumbent Cuthbert Dube, former board member Nigel Munyati and Harare City chairman Leslie Gwindi for the Zifa presidency during the Saturday plebiscite.
If voted into power, Carelse-Juul said his immediate task will be making sure people returned to stadia to watch football.
He said he believes the country has lost so much because of non-football people thrust into positions of power.
“I want to be identified with success not failure. I love football and during my tenure I went to every single game of the national team because of passion I have for the game. It is also good to the politicians to have successful football teams,” he said.
Carelse-Juul said during his tenure as Zifa chairman, President Mugabe watched as many games as possible because the team was successful.
“I sat with him on many occasions, why because the team was successful and it was pleasing.
“I sincerely hope it’s not true what I read in the papers that the incumbent Zifa president has watched just four football matches in his entire tenure,” he said of Dube.
Munyati told local journalists on Saturday that Dube had never set foot at the Zifa offices and watched just four Warriors’ matches.
The Warriors’ spell under Carelse-Juul is described as one of the best by the national team. He said the success was a culmination of five years of work and planning. He said some of the players who shone in the era had come through Reinhard Fabisch’s Under-23 team of 1991 which won bronze in Egypt at the All-Africa Games.
He said while Fabisch had insisted on going on a building exercise, he was told that the nation was now ripe to deliver results as there was a firm foundation for him to succeed. Zimbabwe came close to qualifying for the 1994 World Cup finals.
Carelse-Juul said the Zimbabwe Warriors must qualify for the next World Cup and not only qualify for the Nations Cup but to win it as well.
On how he proposes to clear the $6 million debt that Zifa is sitting on, Carelse-Juul, a businessman of repute, said his board will engage government so that it allows companies that sponsor sport to enjoy some tax rebates.
“In our engagement with the government, we will impress upon them to create an enabling environment for the corporate bodies to venture into sport sponsorship.
“We will also identify and engage creditors to negotiate some settlement plan and I think over a period of say four to five years,” he said.
A former football player and coach, Carelse-Juul also promised to step down from office if he does not achieve his set goals.
He played for Bulawayo Wanderers and went on to coach the club. He made his name at Dynamos where he won the Chibuku Trophy, Castle Cup, Rothmans Shield and the BAT Super League, good achievements for a man who played soccer alongside greats like the late Majuta Mpofu.
“I am proud to be standing here today as the next Zifa president.
“We will achieve. We will turn around our fortunes,” he said.
Online Reporter