adminyear in which two Young Warriors sides failed to fulfil their international assignments.
The national Under-17 and Under-20 teams failed to travel to Congo and Angola last year for African Youth Championships qualifiers, attracting sanctions from the Confederation of African Football in a move that also seriously dented Zifa’s image.
Following that sad development, Zimbabwe have now been left to focus on the Warriors and the Women’s national teams to fly the country’s flag on the international arena with Klaus
Dieter Pagels men setting their revised target onto the Cosafa Castle Cup in Zambia and qualification for the 2014 African Nations Championships in South Africa.
But for the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors to realise their dreams they would need adequate funding to meet their obligations.
It is against this background that Dube told the Zifa assembly at their annual meeting at the weekend that a strategic plan needed to be worked out to ensure funds were mobilised for the national teams.
Zifa also registered a milestone of their own when they held their first annual indaba at a refurbished Zifa Village auditorium at Mt Hampden, saving the financially troubled association from huge costs that are associated with having to book venues for such meetings at city hotels.
Dube told the assembly that he had secured sponsorship for the construction of a tarred road between the Old Mazoe road and the Zifa Village.
Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, voiced concern with the poor condition of the road that leads to the village when he toured the country in July 2011.
But crucially it is the realisation by the Zifa leadership top avail more resources to the national teams which is key for the development of the game as it afford the country a platform on which to gauge the national game’s competiveness.
“Our national teams met with mixed fortunes in their African and Fifa competitions. We need to have our national teams fully resourced if we are to be among the top 20 football nations in Africa. Some of our teams failed to fulfill their fixtures leading to our being fined by Caf.
“I urge the technical committee to speedily put together a national team’s strategy document which will give the association strategic direction in terms of all national teams.
“The senior team is currently on a rebuilding programme following the disbanding of the team that failed to make it to the 2012 and 2013 African Cup of Nations. We urge the regions and provinces to help the coaches of our national teams to scout for talented players… it is no secret that our country is blessed with raw talent and the scouting should spill into the diaspora.
“We need to qualify for the 2014 CHAN and 2015 African Cup of Nations. The Cosafa senior men’s and women’s cup should be retained by our teams,’’ Dube said.
The Zifa president also paid tribute to the Zimbabwe Football Trust who funded the Warriors’ last two trips to Egypt for a World Cup qualifier and to Zambia for an international friendly.
Three members of the Trust – Marah Hativagone, Webster Chikengezha and Barbra Chikosi- got an insight of how the Zifa assembly conducts its business when they sat through the entire meeting on Saturday.
“The Trust made up of men and women of repute has since serviced two trips for the Warriors and secured land for various projects.
“The association will soon be rolling out a merchandise deal through the trust to maximise revenue’’.
Dube however, acknowledge that Zifa had undergone a difficult year in 2012-13.
“The past year has not been an easy one since there were a lot of challenges. Let me hasten to point out that the challenges spurred us to go the extra mile. We should never drop our heads when faced with challenges.
“The mark of a man lies more in his ability to rise from the ashes than his stay on the ivory tower. I urge you to put football first and never allow our detractors to reverse the gains we have realised to date.
“The association has been visible in the 10 provinces where have provincial officers manned by full staff. The association has however not fully attended to the real zones and districts… the nation has 72 districts which translates into about 700 wards or area zones and I implore the assembly to make a resolution on the revival of the area zones and districts, which are the nursery for football and we cannot do without them,’’ Dube said.
The Zifa boss was, however, not amused by allegations of indiscipline among the association’s affiliates and members and reckoned that the mother body should follow the Fifa and Caf footsteps and establish “a disciplinary code and code of ethics as supplementary instruments to help us manage our game’’.
Dube made the remarks on discipline within the Zifa structures following incidents that characterised the start of the indaba where acting Northern Region chairman Said Sangula was barred from attending following the nullification of an election result in which he had had beaten Douglas Chitongo and Francis Zimunya for the right to lead the region. The troubled Central region also saw two candidates — Njodzi Zinaka and Stanley Chapeta — both claiming to represent the affiliate trying to attend to the meeting.
“There were sticking issues of credentials from the Central Region where two candidates for the same position wanted to attend. In the Northern Region the conduct of the elections was queried and appeals and petitions lodged within the prescribed time.
“We sought legal counsel and we were advised that both scenarios provided for the nullification of the candidature of the persons and thus the three of them were asked to leave the meeting. “The assembly also spoke about the need for discipline and respect for statutes and this came in the wake of developments in the Northern Region. “There was also discussion on the information from an on-line (Real Soccer) publication except whose contents were attributed to Mr Sangula and there was concern that such articles detract our efforts to turn around the game,’’ Dube said.
The Zifa Appeals Committee is now handling the cases in which Sangula’s triumph is being questioned as well as the Central Region matter where they need to determine who between Zinaka and Chapeta should be the legitimate representative.
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