Light at the end of the tunnel for Zim football

Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter

EFFORTS to have Zimbabwe’s suspension from international football lifted took a giant leap towards finalisation yesterday when another high-level FIFA delegation held another key meeting with the Sport and Recreation Commission in Harare. 

As was the case during their initial meeting in April, both FIFA and SRC kept a tight lid on their deliberations. 

But sources told The Herald last night that considerable progress had been made in the discussions with resolutions now being forwarded to the FIFA Council to make a determination on Zimbabwe’s fate.

FIFA, who are understood to be also keen on finding a lasting solution to the Zimbabwe crisis, dispatched a delegation that included representatives from CAF and COSAFA. 

The delegation included FIFA’s head of development programmes in Africa Solomon Mudege, Gelson Fernandes (FIFA director Member Associations Africa) and COSAFA president Artur de Almedida de Silva.

Almedida was also representing CAF in the indaba. 

FIFA, CAF and COSAFA met with SRC yesterday morning to finalise details on ZIFA’s situation ahead of a council meeting expected this week to review the country’s suspension, the sources said. 

 “Should the suspension be lifted it is expected that a Normalisation Committee would then be immediately put into place to implement a roadmap to the ZIFA reforms.”

Critically, it also emerged from the deliberations that Zimbabwe’s anticipated return to the international game will be without ousted ZIFA president Felton Kamambo and his board. 

There is also no immediate return for Gift Banda and his executive. 

Banda has been the acting ZIFA president since April 2022 when the association’s congress recalled the trio of Philemon Machana, Bryton Malandule and Kamambo. 

“The discussions have confirmed that Felton Kamambo and Banda led Executive will not be part of the interim arrangements at ZIFA. 

“FIFA are this time determined to clean the house completely at ZIFA from grassroots to the executive committee level. 

“What was also important from the meeting is that there is alignment, focus and co-operation between FIFA, CAF and the SRC,” added the sources. 

 After their lengthy indaba with SRC at the regulatory body’s boardroom at the National Sports Stadium, the parties then paid a courtesy call on Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry to brief her on the latest developments on the ZIFA matter. 

Sports Commission director-general Eltah Nengomasha could not be drawn to comment on the arrival of the delegation and their itinerary. 

But as reported earlier by our sister paper The Sunday Mail a few weeks ago, this week has a strong bearing on the shape that is going to be taken by Zimbabwean football.

The Warriors are expected to be part of the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign amid strong indications that FIFA could lift Zimbabwe’s suspension. 

The draw for the World Cup qualifiers, which will precede the 45th CAF Ordinary General Assembly, will be conducted in Cotonou, Benin, next Wednesday. 

Nine teams from the continent will qualify for the expanded World Cup, an increase of four from the slots that have been traditionally reserved for Africa. 

FIFA will stage the 2026 edition in three North American countries — Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The Warriors, who have slid into the 128th position on the FIFA rankings due to their inactivity, could bounce back just in time for the 2026 qualifiers. 

This world football governing body and the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) seem to have found common ground, which will pave the way for the setting up of the widely expected Normalisation Committee to oversee the administration of troubled ZIFA. 

FIFA would have to first lift Zimbabwe’s suspension before constituting a Normalisation Committee. FIFA appear to have been convinced that the “win-win” situation in Zimbabwe’s case was the appointment of the Normalisation Committee. 

Zimbabwe’s membership rights at FIFA were suspended last year in February when FIFA ruled that the intervention by the Sports Commission to suspend the ZIFA board pending investigations into various allegations of corruption and mismanagement constituted third-party interference.

The ZIFA board was suspended in November 2021 and three weeks later FIFA descended on Zimbabwe. Some members of the suspended board led by Kamambo were later kicked out of football via a vote of no confidence.