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Sports Reporter
THE decision by Zifa president Cuthbert Dube to launch a countrywide “Meet the Affiliates Programme,” where he will distribute football equipment, has been met with suspicion by some councillors who feel that it’s tantamount to buying the support of those who have rebelled against his leadership.
The countrywide tour, which will be launched at Raylton Sports Club in Harare, comes against a background of a spectacular fallout between Dube and the Zifa Assembly with councillors twice trying to revoke his mandate to lead the national game.
“I think it’s interesting that Dube suddenly finds the energy to try and tour the entire country, now that his leadership has been questioned, when he has failed, in the past five years, to just go to Rufaro, a stadium that is close to his home since he lives in Harare, just to support our national teams,” one councillor told our Harare Bureau.
“We expected him to be addressing the issue of the national coach, since Callisto Pasuwa announced that he has quit, but somehow his priority is to try and get resources that he wants to distribute to provinces and regions around the country.
“You can see that his mission is just to hang on to his job, everything else doesn’t matter, and that’s where we’ve issues with him because it’s not just a coincidence that when the EGM is meant to be held on October 3, where his leadership will be decided, he decides it’s time to distribute gifts to the people who will make decisions.
“The good thing is that the councillors are not fools anymore, that’s why more than 40 of us were brave enough to tell him at the AGM that the game will be better off without him as our leader, and even if he brings in the gifts, it’s too late to make people change their minds because you can’t write off damage, which has been done in five years, by gifts given on one visit in just one month.
“When we needed to see our leader at the stadium, supporting our national teams, he wasn’t there and we aren’t sure if he will find time to be at Rufaro to support the girls but he finds energy to go around the country to say that he wants to meet us and help us develop a game whose national team has been expelled from the 2018 World Cup.”
Zifa announced yesterday that Dube’s programme will run from August 22 to September 26, 2015 and he will be accompanied by some of his board members.
“The president will visit a number of affiliates to assess the state of football and provide solutions to various problems these key football organs are facing,” chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze said in a statement.
“Affiliates play a key role in the development of the beautiful game. The president will also donate football equipment for the growth and development of the game. We therefore urge our key stakeholders, the media and members of the football family to join the president and make this programme a success.”
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