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ON Thursday afternoon, the world football governing body, FIFA, caught everyone in Zimbabwe by surprise when they announced they have banned a former ZIFA official — Obert Zhoya — from the sport for five years.
He was also fined him 20 000 Swiss francs for sexually harassing three female referees.
The FIFA Ethics Committee found Zhoya, who was the secretary-general of ZIFA’s referees’ committee, guilty of “abusing his position.”
Zhoya’s suspension starts immediately and he will be notified of the grounds of the decision within the next 60 days.
His fine equates to just over US$20 300.
“The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has banned Mr Obert Zhoya, former secretary general of the referees committee of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) from all football-related activities for a duration of five years, after having found him guilty of abusing his position to sexually harass three female ZIFA referees,” read a statement from FIFA on Thursday.
“Upon careful analysis of the written statements of the victims as well as the various evidence collected during the investigations conducted by the investigatory chamber, the adjudicatory chamber was comfortably satisfied that Mr Zhoya had breached art. 23 (Protection of physical and mental integrity), art. 25 (Abuse of position) and, by corollary, art. 13 (General duties) of the Code of Ethics.”
Ironically, the sexual harassment of female referees was one of the Sports and Recreation Commission’s chief reasons for suspending the Felton Kamambo-led ZIFA Board in November last year.
The victims approached the country’s local sports regulator, asking for them to intervene, after their pleas to have Zhoya sanctioned by Kamambo and his board, had fallen into deaf ears.
In fact, one of the alleged victims told the British newspaper, the Guardian, that she had been “humiliated, intimidated and degraded” by Zhoya.
She claimed she had received a series of WhatsApp messages asking her to spend the night with him in a hotel.
Allegations of sexual harassment against Zhoya were first reported by the Zimbabwe Newspapers group in September 2020.
But, it was not until the alleged victims reported the claims to police, in December 2021, that a formal investigation was launched.
The suspension of the Kamambo board led to Zimbabwe’s suspension from FIFA in February this year.
There was, and there’s still a huge outcry, from some people who feel the Sports Commission’s decision to fire the Kamambo-led ZIFA Board was either harsh or wrong.
Their concern is that by resulting in our suspension from international football, it will jeopardise the chances of our footballers to ply their trade overseas.
They also claim, without the Warriors playing competitive matches, the emerging players won’t have a platform to attract foreign suitors.
But, the events of Thursday afternoon have since vindicated the Sports Commission, who have been emphasising all along that it’s time to fix local football.
And, this means it’s time to clear the mess in the game, which has resulted in it being infiltrated by opportunists, who have been masquerading as administrators.
It’s not a secret that football administration in Zimbabwe has gone to the dogs and those who have been leading the game, of late, cannot even be allowed to tie the shoes of the likes of the late ZIFA boss Nelson Chirwa.
Frank Valdemarca, Ndumiso Gumede, Chris Sibanda, Rita Musekiwa and Lazarus Mhurushomana are some of the officials who set the bar high, in terms of the game’s administration.
The departure of all these loyal servants of ZIFA has left our football administration poorer.
This has left the game vulnerable to infiltration by ”mercenaries” who are only there to line their pockets.
The past three decades, or so, have seen a number of so-called ZIFA presidents and their cronies finding dozens of ways to enrich themselves, feasting on the annual grants, which the association get from FIFA.
There has been no football development in this country, with the money reserved for this structure, being gobbled up by the shameless leaders.
It’s a shame to hear some short-sighted local football fans crying foul and denigrating the Sports Commission for booting out the Kamambo-led ZIFA Board.
Surprisingly there was recently a huge outcry from a number of local players who feel that their careers could be disrupted because of the prolonged absence of international football in Zimbabwe.
Even some home-based players now claim that their future looks bleak in the current set-up where we are not playing international football… The doom and gloom merchants who denigrate their own country. We don’t know what they really mean because most of these players barely feature for the Warriors.
And, even at the COSAFA Cup, where they should have been playing, we have become a laughing stock over the years.
Why? Because our entire football structure had become rotten and that probably explains why we still focus on Khama Billiat, a player who left the country more than a dozen years ago, when it comes to Supa Diski.
In those 12 years, we have not found a way to produce another Khama to sell to the Supa Diski clubs.
It’s not that we don’t have players who could have made it, but their progress was stalled because of a football structure that had gone rogue.
Now, we even have players who are failing in the second-tier of South African football.
With all due respect to those voices, Bill Antonio didn’t need international football for him to convince Belgian club, KV Mechellen, that he was a talent they could take a chance on.
He simply did well for Dynamos and the rest, as they say, is history and he is in Belgium, which provided a home for Moses Chunga, to begin his adventure in Europe. The five-year ban imposed on Zhoya by FIFA shows that there is still a lot that needs to be done to clean local football.
Online Reporter