dyton mupawaenda
TOMORROW marks exactly two months since the FIFA Council lifted Zimbabwe’s suspension from the international football family and the setting up of a road map to bring back normalcy to ZIFA’s troubled administration.
The move by FIFA brought so much joy and relief to the football-loving Zimbabweans, after the country had spent close to 18 months in the wilderness.
It was a very difficult period, with all Zimbabwe national football teams sidelined from international football and the country deprived of funding and also unable to benefit from development programmes arranged by FIFA and CAF.
This is a space that no association or country wants to find itself in, for a day or for a week. But as Zimbabwe we went through the pain that long. It was difficult for all the stakeholders of the game and, sadly, the players bore the brunt more than anyone.
In reflection, all the problems were traced back to a crisis of leadership in the ZIFA corridors.
ZIFA was virtually rendered dysfunctional; a haven of thieves and crooks and this was a culmination of several years of impunity as the successive ZIFA administrations got away with heinous offenses, away from public scrutiny under the cover that FIFA does not allow ‘third party interference.’
Thankfully, FIFA have given us an opportunity to start afresh through the setting up of a Normalisation Committee led by Lincoln Mutasa.
Considering the toxic and unique nature of ZIFA’s challenges, which led to the interventions by FIFA, this is an opportunity that should be grabbed with both hands and make the most out of it to set all the past wrongs right.
Almost everyone, except the few corrupt individuals who tried to hold on to power, agreed Zimbabwean football needed to start on a clean slate.
This is the reason the ZIFA Normalisation Committee needs everyone’s backing.
But, barely two months into the office, choruses of discontent have already started spiralling from among the stakeholders.
It seems like the ugly politicking that nearly grounded the game has somehow found its hold again, even when everyone was tempted to believe we are past the ruinous chapter.
This week, The Herald carried a sad story detailing how a group of former footballers was plotting an audacious bid to wrestle control of ZIFA and use their proximity to Normalisation Committee chairman Mutasa to force through their plot.
The revelations came amid growing fears that the Normalisation Committee appears to have strayed off the rails.
The Committee has been accused of being as lethargic as they have appeared clueless to the mammoth task of reviving the national game that has been bleeding to a slow death, courtesy of long periods of poor administration.
FIFA official, Solomon Mudege, a Zimbabwean based in Zurich, who was instrumental in resolving the ZIFA crisis, has allegedly been caught up in the politicking.
Mudege stands accused of micromanaging the Normalisation Committee and allegedly using it to purge all those perceived to have led in the ouster of his cronies in Felton Kamambo’s board.
As a result, the Committee has ceased from pursuing an agenda to resolve the real challenges at ZIFA as prescribed by FIFA. It’s a worrying situation, considering the committee only has 10 months left to complete their mandate, including arranging the elections for a new ZIFA leadership.
The committee is most likely to miss the timelines; with the pace they are conducting business. It’s not that the personnel chosen into the committees are incapable but outside influence could be their major undoing.
It is only fair that the Normalisation Committee be given space to do their work without hindrance. This committee must assume full control, otherwise we could miss the mark.
The nation should look forward to the growth of the game without hindrance and to the future prospects of competing in international football events with confidence.
Online Reporter