High-powered Fifa team in Zim

Recreation Commission statutes.

A high-level Fifa delegation is expected in the country tomorrow afternoon to help Zifa finalise their constitutional reforms and lay the platform for the 2014 election season where a new leadership for the national game will be chosen.

The national game’s election season is expected to swing into life when affiliate bodies vote for new executives and will culminate in the polls for the Premier Soccer League in February and the Zifa board in March.

Fifa development officer for Southern Africa, Ashford Mamelodi, will lead the four-member delegation that includes the Switzerland-based trio of Simone Studer, James Johnson and Primo Covaro.

The quartet will be in the country up to Friday after which Fifa will ensure that Zifa’s amended constitution conforms to the world body’s statutes before it is taken to the association’s assembly for ratification at the end of this month or early August.

Mamelodi is no stranger to Zimbabwe having been by the nature of his portfolio, been the Fifa official with the highest number of visits to the country.
The Botswana-based veteran administrator will link up with the trio of Studer, Johnson and Covaro as Fifa continue extending their helping hand to Zifa and ensure their member association complies with all their statutory requirements and lays the groundwork for sustained corporate governance in the domestic game.

Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, in confirming the quartet’s tour of duty reckoned that it could be a defining moment for an association that has previously had problems with the legitimacy of its constitution.

Just three years ago, Zifa had problems over which constitution was to be used for the 2010 elections with even the Sport and Recreation Commission failing to act decisively on that crisis.

But after setting up a constitutional review committee that went around the country and gathered submissions from all affiliates as well as the Sports Commission Zifa may have finally turned the corner and this week, they will get a frank evaluation from the Fifa experts, who have previously helped such countries like Sierra Leone, Uganda and Tanzania.

Mashingaidze said Mamelodi and his colleagues would immediately get down to business, hours after their arrival in Harare tomorrow with the development officer for Southern Africa and his colleagues scheduled to have a briefing later in the evening with Zifa president Cuthbert Dube, his deputy Ndumiso Gumede and constitutional review committee chairman and lawyer Cosmas Mkwesha.

“We are expecting the Fifa delegation to touch down around 12.20 pm on Wednesday and later in the evening have a briefing with the Zifa leadership.
“After the briefing with the Zifa presidency and the chairman of the constitution review committee they will move to the Zifa Village on Thursday between 9am and 5pm for brainstorming on the amendments made on the draft constitution.

“Day Two will then see a power point presentation being made by the Mkwesha committee following submissions from the SRC, Fifa and all our affiliate organs and the Fifa delegation will check if what has been presented is in compliance with the Fifa statutes.

“They will clarify on who qualifies to be a member of the association and clarify who constitutes the electoral colleges at every level,’’ Mashingaidze said.
Mashingaidze also gave an insight into of some of the critical topics that would come under discussion as Zifa try to come up with an amended constitution that should set up the legal boundaries of how the game could be effectively managed in this country given that previous amendments were littered with loopholes.

“Discussion will centre on such topics like the composition of the Zifa board and the powers of the board, composition of the assembly and the Zifa judicial bodies.
“The issue of the board and affiliate elections will also be tabled and under the powers of the board, they will among other issues look at what powers the board wields in terms of dealing with corruption and white collar crime in the game.

“They will also explore the roles of standing committees such as the distinction between the ethics committee and the Fair Play committee and who qualifies to be on such committees as well as the conduct of banned officials and how they can be rehabilitated into the game.

“It is like D-Day in that they will also spell out how corporate governance should be conducted. This whole exercise is driven by Fifa and it is the first time they have sent four members including some top lawyers for such an exercise.

“Fifa wants everything that would have been agreed on to cascade down to the affiliates,’’ Mashingaidze said.
It has also emerged that Fifa have been constantly expressing strong reservations about Zifa’s set-up in which technical arms of the game like referees, coaches, doctors or the secretariat find themselves being members of the assembly because these are employees who can be fired at any given time.

Apart from the Zifa top brass, a Premier Soccer League representative, five from the constitutional review committee, one person to represent the four regions, two members standing in for the provinces, Zifa lawyer Ralph Maganga and a representative of Women’s Football, will make up the audience for the Fifa delegation.

Mashingaidze said once the assembly ratifies and adopts the amended constitution, it would the legal document that will provide the roadmap under which elections would be held starting at the lower rungs and culminating in the board elections.

The amendments and Fifa’s clarification could bring an end to such problems like those that characterised the contentious by-elections in the Central and Northern Regions over the composition of the Electoral College and the eligibility of candidates.

In the end there were two candidates each claiming to be have been the legitimate secretary-general of the Central Region and wanting to attend to the Zifa annual meeting.
In the Northern Region, the by-election for the chairmanship which had ushered in Saidi Sangula was annulled after protests from other contestants — Francis Zimunya and Douglas Chitongo and the provincial chairmen.