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football take a giant step forward.
The Harare business executive, who left the country yesterday for a week-long visit to Mauritius where he will attend the Fifa Congress on Thursday and Friday, said the media had a huge role to build, and not be used as destroyers, of local football.
Dube will stand for a second term as Zifa president in March next year and told The Herald that while they have made tremendous progress in the last three years to strengthen the foundation of the national game, there was still a lot that needs to be done.
The Zifa boss said their efforts were not being helped by a rabid media, which puts a lot of thrust on negative material, a lot of it coloured by falsehoods, at the expense of a lot of positive things that were happening in the game.
Dube singled out the Real Soccer website, run by its Editor and publisher Shepherd Mandizvidza, as having championed a crusade to paint everything to do with Zifa, in general, and himself, in particular, with a dark brush.
The football website has published a number of articles in the past few months claiming that Dube was the “Undertaker of Zimbabwe football” and makes allegations that the Zifa president allegedly “bribed” a Fifa official and was also paying questionable amounts to councillors.
Dube, who has launched a defamation suit on both the website and its Editor and publisher, said the articles were not only negative but did not pass the test of accuracy, which should guide everything that is meant for a public audience.
“When you undertake to serve in a public office, like football, you know that you will be criticised at some point because that is the nature of the office and the game,” said Dube.
“But the least that you expect is that the criticism should be based on the truth, on facts, so that it helps us also grow and make the organisation that we are serving better.
“Unfortunately, what we are getting is a section of a media that has thrown away all its principles and does not subscribe to the ethics that govern it and you have one article after another, especially on the Real Soccer website, which does not carry even a grain of truth and is meant to cause maximum possible damage to my reputation.
“I have kept quiet for some time now, thinking that this thing will die down and those who are doing that will realise that what they are doing is wrong, but I have seen that my silence has been wrongly interpreted to suggest that I’m wrong and what they have been writing is right.
“I have a reputation to protect, both in business and the office that I hold as Zifa president, and I have come to a point where I cannot take this character assassination anymore and I also have to be given a chance to speak.
“Everything that they have written about me has no substance, is not true, and I think you can ask yourself that if I am the Undertaker of Zimbabwe football, why should I invest so much, in my own financial resources, to just keep the game on its feet?
“We came in at a period when everything was at a standstill, there was no movement going forward, and we have tried, in very difficult circumstances, to rebuild the whole football structures and you can’t do that in a day or month, it takes time.
“We can’t do that alone, too, we need a responsible media that criticises us, when we come short, and supports where we are doing well so that we create a positive environment where even sponsors can come in and be partners.”
The Zifa president said while some sponsors have seen the light and were impressed by the work that his board has put into managing football in the past three years, some were being held back by the toxic environment and emphasis on negativity.
“When we have a media where anything goes, where anything can be written and the characters of people can be savaged, without any evidence to back what is being written, as is the case with what we have today, especially with the people at Real Soccer, sponsors will think twice before committing themselves,” said Dube.
“They don’t want their brands to end up being dragged into these personal wars that have no foundation and that have no benefits to Zimbabwe football.
“You get calls from people around the world, even those at Fifa, asking what is really wrong with Zimbabwe football?
“Why can’t we move away from characters to issues that can take our football forward? Why are we in this fighting mood all the time that we can publish anything, as long as it tarnishes the image of someone, even if it’s not true and doesn’t benefit our football?
“We cannot allow the game to suffer forever, when others are succeeding, just because that’s what a few elements, who want to ensure that nothing positive comes out, are pushing this agenda, we have a duty to develop football and we will do that.”
Online Reporter