H-METRO SAYS: CHANGE THE ZIFA RULES TO GIVE EX-PLAYERS A CHANCE

Robson Sharuko

H-Metro Editor

THE ZIFA elections are over and we have a new president of the association, Nqobile Magwizi, and a new executive committee which will run our national game for the next four years.

The Harare business executive will lead a board which has Kenny Ndebele and Loveness Mukura as his deputies while Tafadzwa Benza, Brighton Ushendibaba, Thomas Marabanyika, Alice Zeure, Kudzai Kadzombe and Davison Muchena are the board members.

The rules of the elections were that, at least one of the vice-presidents, had to be a woman and Mukura is the first woman to hold such a position in this country.

Alternatively, if Mavis Gumbo, who gave a spirited fight, had garnered enough votes, there was a possibility the two vice-presidents could all have been women.

It was a bloodbath for former footballers, including legends like Sunday Chidzambwa, as their bid to occupy seats on the ZIFA board failed with all of them failing to make an impression among the Councillors.

There were seven men, who are high-profile former players, in the poll and all of them failed to make even an impact.

The polls on Saturday showed that it is difficult, if not impossible, for the former players to get a seat on the ZIFA board because the majority of them do not have the money to finance the campaign.

At H-Metro, we believe that it is important for the former players to be given a chance to also take a seat among the decision makers who run local football.

· We understand that the current set-up does not give them a chance and we propose that a special arrangement should be done by Magwizi and his team to ensure that in the future it will be guaranteed that a former footballer sits on the ZIFA board.

· That special arrangement has to be incorporated into the ZIFA constitution to ensure that, going forward, at least one of the association board members must be a former player.

· They can qualify the meaning of a former player to describe one with a traceable record of having played the game in a top-flight league of any country or, if they want, they can restrict it to those players who would have represented either the Warriors or Mighty Warriors.

· If the football leaders agreed that there should be, at least, one woman in the presidium and, at least, one woman on the executive board, they surely can also have a similar arrangement for the former players and that will guarantee that there will always be a former player on the executive board.

Makwinji Soma-Phiri, who bravely went for the ZIFA presidency, failed to get even one vote in the poll.

It didn’t matter to the electorate that Makwinji is a distinguished figure of the Dynamos Class of ‘98 which reached the CAF Champions League final.

Another former player, James Takavada, who was seeking a post as a ZIFA vice-president, got just one vote in the poll.

Ten years ago Takavada, a former Soccer Star of the Year, got only one vote when he tried to be the ZIFA president in the poll which was won by Philip Chyangwa.

A year earlier, another former player Nigel Munyati, who used to play for Black Aces, fared even worse when he failed to get even a vote among the 58 voters who took part in the poll.

There were 39 candidates fighting for the ZIFA board members and the former players were represented in this category by the legendary Chidzambwa, Alois Bunjira, Harlington Shereni, Terrence Malunga and Walter Musanhu.

But they were all off the mark with Chidzambwa, the first coach to guide the Warriors to the AFCON finals and the only local coach to lead a club to the CAF Champions League final, managing just TWO votes while only ONE voter sided with Bunjira.

The trio of Musanhu, who is making a huge impression on the domestic football scene with his work at the Jadel Football Academy, Shereni and Malunga failed to take home any votes.

The only former player who succeeded was Mukura, who won the race for the vice-presidency.

Mukura, who quit playing football after the poll, captained dominant Women’s Soccer League side Herentals Queens to three league titles over the past three seasons.

She also played for Vagoni Vebasa before her move to Herentals and was still an active footballer at the time of the elections.