Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS have been urged to register their constitution with Zifa to make it easier for the club to make binding football decisions, especially concerning disciplinary issues.
The call was made by former Zifa vice-president Omega Sibanda, who said currently Highlanders cannot make binding disciplinary sanctions on their players and administrators.
He said the club can’t ban or suspend any of its players without pay, but once its constitution is registered with the national association, whatever decision the club makes will simply need ratification by Zifa.
“Highlanders has always led the way in terms of corporate governance issues and I am therefore urging them to get their constitution registered with Zifa. It might seem an unnecessary move, but believe me, it’s critical. Bosso as it stands can’t impose sanctions on its players like suspension without pay. This applies to all clubs, but I am mentioning Highlanders because I know it has a constitution; other clubs probably have no idea what this is, but if they have, it follows that they get that document registered,” said Sibanda.
He said that’s why Zifa wasn’t moved when the Highlanders’ board wrote a protest letter following the suspension of the club’s then chairman Peter Dube in November 2016.
He said Zifa only knows Highlanders as a club and not its structures and hence could not have responded to an unknown football body.
“Bosso is a member of Zifa, yes, but it is also an independent organisation with its own rules and regulations, but that must be registered with Zifa otherwise as a member of Zifa they should be using the Zifa constitution like all other affiliates. At the moment, no affiliate, including the PSL, has a registered constitution, making whatever football decision they take irrelevant and open to challenge.
“We have a lot of things not going right in our football, including this monster called regional chairmanship. Where in the Zifa constitution does it say there shall be a regional chairperson? It only says there shall be four delegates to represent, say Southern Region, so this business of having people wasting money campaigning for chairmanship is just a waste of time and resources,” said Sibanda.
He said clubs must simply vote for six office bearers that then decide among themselves who will be chairperson if they so wish.
“When people are attending the Zifa congress, they go there as delegates, meaning anyone can be asked to represent a certain constituency, but we have had clubs missing meetings because the chairman is committed, yet all that’s needed is a representative of the club.”
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