adminLovemore Dube Sports Editor
A FOUR-MEMBER Fifa delegation led by regional officer Ashford Mamelodi arrives in Harare at12.20pm on an assignment to help Zifa come up with a new constitution. The new working document is expected to usher in new rules and regulations to govern the running of leagues. At the moment clubs are being run on a 1996 document that has been overtaken by time and development in football administration trends across the globe.
Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela confirmed yesterday that Mamelodi who is resident in Botswana would arrive in the capital with Simon Scueda, James Johnson and Prino Corvaro.
“We expect them to touch down tomorrow afternoon and get to business straight away. They will be here from 3-5 July,” said Gwesela.
Asked if the delegation will meet the Zifa Assembly in the process of coming up with a new constitution, Gwesela said they would work with a committee made up of representatives of the councillors.
“Tomorrow we will give you a committee of people that they will work with drawn from the councillors,” said Gwesela.
There have been fears that the constitution could be tailor-made to suit the interests of the sitting board and assembly.
Some councillors are worried about clauses that bar anyone who has not been a board member to challenge for the presidency. They believe it could compromise service delivery as not all board members could be presidency material.
The new constitution will leave Zifa with a leaner council as some affiliates will fall by the way side and that all board members would be voted in.
In the past affiliates like women’s soccer, Division One leagues, referees, coaches association, juniors and women’s soccer were affiliates who contributed assembly and board members.
They will be left out because Fifa looks at coaches and referees as employees in the game while juniors and women’s soccer are desks.
This had left Zifa with a blotted council a majority of members people who never articulated the direction football should take. Their only visibility being only during electioneering and moving or seconding motions at general meetings.
There have been calls that administrators should have a basic secondary school or tertiary education.
But this has been met with resistance in some corridors that football has never been a preserve for any particular group and that the best players and administrators were never the sophisticated lot that is accused of running clubs and associations down.
Online Reporter