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AS of today, we don’t have a committee in charge of our football after the tenure of the ZIFA normalisation committee ended yesterday.
Lincoln Mutasa and his team were appointed to run the affairs of our football on July 11 last year.
This followed the decision by the Bureau of the FIFA Council to lift the suspension that was imposed on ZIFA in February 2022 and appoint a normalisation committee.
FIFA were very clear on the duties which the normalisation committee were expected to perform in the one year they were in charge of our game.
The duties were as follows:
- To run the daily affairs of ZIFA;
- To restructure the ZIFA administration;
- To establish, with the help of FIFA, a collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Sport/the SRC and ZIFA, which will define the responsibilities and objectives of each party, including (but not exclusively) on the topic of sexual harassment;
- To review the ZIFA Statutes and Electoral Code to ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements, and to ensure their adoption by the ZIFA Congress;
- To act as an electoral committee in order to organise and conduct elections of a new ZIFA Board based on the newly aligned ZIFA Statutes and Electoral Code; and
- To ensure a proper financial handover to the new ZIFA Board.
There was relief all over the country, especially given that our national game had suffered badly during the time we were isolated from the international football family.
It meant that we were left out of the qualifiers for the AFCON which were held in Cote d’Ivoire, which robbed our players of a chance to showcase their talents at this level and, for many of them, the chance to attract suitors in various foreign leagues. Therefore, when the suspension was lifted there was hope that those who had been thrust into power will help bring stability to the way our national game is run.
The expectation was understandable given that the game had stalled under the leadership of Felton Kamambo, which led to the intervention of the Sports Commission and the suspension of the Kamambo executive committee.
Mutasa was expected to do well because during his last association with football, as chairman of Dynamos, he had performed well and invested in real estate for the Glamour Boys.
But, as his term ended yesterday, Mutasa will agree that his team didn’t do even a fraction of what was expected of them from FIFA.
Instead, they kept bungling and could not, in one year, even make the simple decision of appointing a coach for the Warriors.
They kept chopping and changing the coaches and a World Cup campaign, which started with Baltemar Brito in charge, had Jairos Tapera in charge when we lost against Lesotho and South Africa.
For many football fans, the hope will be that FIFA do not extend the term of office of Mutasa and his crew because they have been horrible and failed badly to execute their task.
We need new faces at ZIFA.
Online Reporter