DOOMSDAY SCENARIO FOR THE EX-STARS

Tadious Manyepo

Sports Reporter

IT was a DoomsDay scenario for former footballers, including legends like Sunday Chidzambwa, in their bid to occupy seats on the ZIFA board.

All the men performed miserably in the ZIFA elections on Saturday.

There were seven former players in the poll and all of them failed to make even an impact.

The watershed pool was held in Harare on Saturday with a new board led by Nqobile Magwizi being ushered into office.

Magwizi will be deputised by Loveness Mukura and Kenny Ndebele.

Tafadzwa Benza, Brighton Ushendibaba, Alice Zeure, Kudzai Kadzombe, Davison Muchena and Thomas Marambanyika won the board seats.

But there was no place in all the categories for former players.

In a selection where 77 delegates cast their votes for each of the available slots, the EIGHT players, led by presidential hopeful Makwinji Soma-Phiri, garnered a total of just FOUR votes.

Phiri, a distinguished figure of the Dynamos Class of ‘98 that reached the CAF Champions League final, failed to get even a single vote in the presidential race.

It was a landslide for Magwizi who snapped up 61 votes.

Another former player, James Takavada, who should have ideally become one of Soma-Phiri’s deputies, if the “ex-players” had their way, got one vote in the vice-presidential poll.

By the time the selection of the executive members started, it was already telling that the chances of having a former player on the board were next to ZERO.

The field in this category had a massive 39 candidates with Chidzambwa, Alois Bunjira, Harlington Shereni, Terrence Malunga and Walter Musanhu all hopeful to make it.

But they were all off the mark with Chidzambwa, a legend of the game, managing just TWO nominations and only ONE voter sided with Bunjira.

The trio of Musanhu, Shereni and Malunga failed to take home any votes.

Perhaps the only solace for former and current players is that Mukura managed to get the vice-president’s post.

Mukura has captained dominant Women’s Soccer League side Herentals Queens to three league titles over the past three seasons.

She has played for Vagoni Vebasa for over eight years and is still an active footballer.