adminscandal, amid indications that the world football governing body was finalising their case and a comprehensive report will be out soon.
With Fifa in the final stages of their report on Asiagate, it’s now certain that the Zifa Independent Disciplinary Committee, tasked with handling the case on the domestic front, might find itself having been overtaken by events that are likely to sweep the local game.
The Herald can exclusively reveal today that the crack Fifa Investigations team from Zurich met Harare businessman Kudzi Shaba in Johannesburg on Monday evening, at an indaba that lasted over three hours at the plush Sandton Intercontinental Hotel and Conference.
The Fifa officials also met five members of the current Warriors’ teams in Johannesburg, who also gave their side of the stories, but their names are being withheld for now as part of the crack team’s investigation strategy.
Fifa, who are well equipped to handle such matters and have in the wake of reports of match-fixing in world football, been to Asia and the Americas on missions to try and destroy the vice, were happy to have discussed a number of crucial issues with Shaba at their meeting.
This comes hard on the heels of Fifa’s meeting with former Zifa chief executive, Henrietta Rushwaya, in Europe last month, as part of their investigations.
Fifa felt that while both Rushwaya and Shaba were mentioned prominently by the Zifa Asiagate Report as two of the four masterminds of the scandal, there was virtually no input from them in the same report.
Fifa’s investigators believe the Zifa investigating team erred in not inviting Shaba and Rushwaya to answer specific charges related to their alleged involvement in the scandal given that their input would have been crucial in establishing the substance in some of the allegations.
Fifa Head of Security, Chris Eaton, in confirming the Johannesburg meeting with Shaba, said it was important during investigations to get as much information as can be gleaned from several sources to try and exhaust the case.
“It is true our investigations team met with Kudzi (Shaba) in Johannesburg because we felt he has some information that can be helpful to us,” said Eaton.
“But, like during every investigation, we can not divulge the details of the discussion.
“Suffice to say that we found him very helpful, and at the right time, we will be able to make public our findings and you will be the first ones to know,” Eaton said.
Fifa have a policy of not leaking information during an investigation to enable them to work under no pressure of speculation, something the Zifa Asiagate Committee led by Ndumiso Gumede failed to exercise.
Information was routinely leaked during a period when the report was being finalised that by the time they presented the final report, its contents had already been in the public domain.
Shaba told The Herald that he found the Fifa team to be very professional in the manner they went about their business.
“I must admit that Fifa are very serious about sorting out match-fixing allegations and while they are in possession of some shocking information, they conduct themselves professionally as they investigate,” said Shaba.
“I agreed to meet them to explain some of the things I thought were crucial, an opportunity Zifa failed to extend to me.
“I told them how unfair the exercise was to several people who were just mentioned during the information gathering exercise and were presumed guilty without even being asked for their side of story.
“There are even some board members who were suspended based on submissions given but were never given an opportunity to be heard and I explained all that to Fifa.”
Shaba said he told Fifa that he was aware that other people thought he was involved in match-fixing.
“I am a Fifa-accredited agent who can also arrange matches. I asked Fifa why they are not investigating South Africa too, because I arranged friendly matches for them,” said Shaba.
“All I do as an agent is arrange matches and what happens between associations is none of my business as long as they pay my match fees.
I do not believe that is match-fixing.”
Shaba added that he told Fifa that Zifa are trying to victimise him for daring state that he would be interested in becoming the president of the national football association.
“One of the things I was asked during the meeting was the issue of bribery, related to the Zifa elections, which brought the current board into power,” said Shaba.
“I told Fifa that I had heard about the issue several times at home in both private and public places like stadiums.
“It is up to Fifa to establish whether the information that I volunteered is true or not because they have the capacity and mechanism to do that.
“All I did was tell them what I knew, including highlighting that these Asia games did not start in 2007 but way back in 2001 when a national team went to play matches.
“So I am not sure whether those who were in office then could have been paid money to throw the said matches.
“But what I am very confident about is that Fifa are not stupid.
” They have crucial information that they gathered from other associations whose teams played against Zimbabwe whose veracity is not questionable and that could be used to bring out the truth.
“I am not going to reveal the information in public because I gave Fifa my word that I will not say what I heard during the meeting.”
Shaba also revealed that he told the Fifa crack team that he believed he fell out with some members of the Zifa board when he went on national television to oppose the appointment of Belgian gaffer Tom Saintfiet as Warriors’ coach.
“I told them that I had a public fall-out with the Zzifa board members, and they must be nine of them, who wanted Saintfiet as coach, after my presentation on ZTV saying that the Belgian had no
capacity to coach the Warriors,” said Shaba.
Investigations by this newspaper established that Fifa will by the New Year present a final report after they finished their investigations that saw them visit several countries in Asia, Middle East and
Latin America in their global hunt for the truth.
The Fifa report would be a trans-continental report, with Zimbabwe included as one of the chapters.
But it is no longer a secret that Fifa were alarmed by the glaring shortcomings of the Zifa Asiagate report, especially the investigators’ apparent reluctance to test the evidence gathered, failure to give key people a chance to defend themselves against specific allegations and the blanket approach that anyone who travelled was part of the corruption web.
While the Zifa Investigating Committee were quick to paint anyone who was part of the travelling delegations as corrupt, including going to the extent of falsely claiming the former Five-Aside-Soccer-League secretary-general Steve Nyoka travelled to Vietnam, the same policy was not adopted in cases where the committee apparently had interest.
For instance, while the Zifa Asiagate Report claims that the Asian betting syndicates were present when Zimbabwe played Japan in a pre-2010 World Cup friendly in George, South Africa, it does not accuse Benedict Moyo, who was head of the local delegation, as part of the match-fixing web.
Ironically, all other heads of delegations, in any trip that the Zifa Investigators believed was suspicious, were accused of being part of the match-fixing web.
Moyo, the Zifa board member in charge of competitions, was the secretary-general of the Investigating committee.
But it is Fifa’s meeting with Shaba, just a month after Rushwaya’s in Europe that shows the difference in focus between Zifa and their principal in Switzerland, exerting pressure on the Independent Disciplinary Committee even before they sit.
Online Reporter