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statutes were breached and will leave police to handle cases where criminal offences were allegedly committed.
Zifa board member for finance Elliot Kasu, who is a member of the probe team yesterday, appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Arts, Sports and Culture to make oral submissions on various issues affecting football in the country.
Kasu appeared before the portfolio committee, along Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, as they enlightened the lawmakers on the state of football in Zimbabwe.
The appearance by Kasu and Mashingaidze came just a day after Education, Arts and Culture Minister, David Coltart had faced the House of Assembly which wanted to know the fate of those implicated in the Asiagate scam.
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Coltart said he had noted some flaws in the Zifa Asiagate Report and warned that prosecuting culprits of the match-fixing and betting scam would not be an overnight event.
The minister noted that the report, which was not based on affidavit statements, meant that there was need for “professional investigations and prosecution.”
The sincerity of the report has been questioned amid accusations that the committee acted outside its mandate, which was to investigate, and made some damning allegations without verifying some of their facts.
During the question and answer session yesterday with the Parliamentarians, Kasu said the Zifa board was set to meet and deliberate on cases they will pursue while leaving some areas to the law enforcement agents.
Kasu said his committee had classified the people who took part in the Asia games according to the number of games and not the number of trips.
“People who went for one or two games were classified as passive while those who went to a tournament like Merdeka Cup, that had four games, were classified as active.
“The report which we complied touched on 15 matches not trips as misconstrued by the Press.
“It’s not trips but the games that one covered and some people are trying to hide behind the finger over this issue.
“So it’s the number of games that one watched, played or sat on the bench and not the trips as reported in the media.
“It’s not something we manufactured but talked to people and went through archives,” said Kasu.
In his oral evidence, Kasu and Mashingaidze concurred that the life of some of the members of the probe team was under threat and appealed for Government intervention.
“We are keen to finalise the Asiagate scandal and will fight until the truth has come out.
“As an investigating committee, of which I was part, we had made recommendations on the reports.
“Unfortunately the report was leaked to the media before the Zifa board had sat down to look into it.
“But, as a committee, our recommendations had been that the Zifa board would deal with cases where football statutes, that is the Fifa statutes, have been breached.
“And this is the same guidance that we are getting from Fifa.
“There are also some people who are no longer involved in football but have been mentioned in the report and we cannot do anything to them.
“But we recommend that the police can deal with them if there is a criminal element involved,” said Kasu.
He said Fifa’s head of security Chris Eaton’s long-awaited visit will also help to give them direction.
“But we need to get the support of the Government to deal with the issues of a criminal nature,” said Kasu.
Kasu appealed on the Members of Parliament to lobby that whoever is convicted of a crime should be brought to book and that members of the investigation committee are safe from threats.
“Now we are glad to appear before this committee and I think the police can come in and influence since Fifa have put up funds to Interpol to stop the rot of match-fixing and our police are part of Interpol.
“We now appeal and challenge Parliament and Government to protect the team investigating Asiagate against some of the people,” said Kasu.
The Zifa board member for finance told the MPs that Zifa will be compiling a database of the Zimbabwe players in a move that will curb age cheating as well as to help in tracking players.
“When we came into office in March 2009, we found that there was no database for players and we are in the process of setting it up.
“What we found out was that there are close to 1 000 Zimbabwean players who are outside and yet when we looked into the receipt books, there is nothing for the association.
“The association is supposed to get 15 percent of the transfer fees on any player who moves outside and yet for all those players, there is nothing.
“This means some individuals benefitted and I think we have to make another investigation which could bring out more,” said Kasu.
Kasu told the portfolio committee that Zifa could have been fleeced of thousands of dollars through the issuance of International Transfer Clearance.
“Now I have insisted that we are not going to issue an ITC until we have seen the deposit of the association’s 15 percent reflected in our account,” said Kasu.
Kasu also appealed to MPs to lobby for a reduction in levies that are taken by police, the councils and the SRC.
In particular, Kasu singled out the police officers who came to provide security at football matches as being top heavy yet the football administrators mainly need the constables who demand less per hour on duty.
He also called for the need for Government to review laws on immigrants working in Zimbabwe citing the case of Tom Saintfiet, who was denied a worked permit.
“The Zifa board agreed to give Saintfiet the job and he signed a contract which we had to use to look for a work permit as per regulations.
“But when Tom failed to get the work permit, he is now suing us for breach of contract yet the law requires that he has a contract before he applies for a permit,” said Kasu.
Mashingaidze weighed in and called for Government to extend a duty free certificate to Zifa so that the association is able to receive equipment from Fifa.
Acting Chairman of the Portfolio committee, David Chiminhi, said the MPs will look into the concerns raised by Zifa and put them before the House of Assembly for debate
On Wednesday Coltart, who is a lawyer by profession, said there was need for a thorough investigation by professionals into Asiagate.
“This matter requires professional investigations and prosecution. It will take time because it will take some consideration and serious investigations by the police,” said Coltart.
“The challenge is that those statements were not recorded by lawyers but the way forward is for the police, in conjunction with the Attorney General, to start investigations.
“The police already have the report and the public mustn’t think that nothing is being done because we will take this issue to the end.”
Some witnesses, who provided evidence to the investigating team, have questioned the way their submissions have been presented, alleging the report is not a true represantation of what they said.
l Based on article 5 of the FIFA Statutes of 19 October 2003, Article 3 of Fifa Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players states: “1. Players registered at one association may only be registered at a newassociation once the latter has received an International Transfer Certificate (hereinafter: ITC) from the former association. The ITC shall be issued free of charge without any conditions or time limit. Any provisions to the contrary shall be null and void. The association issuing the ITC shall lodge a copy with FIFA. The administrative procedures for issuing the ITC are contained in Annexe 3 of these regulations.”
Article 3.3 states: “If a link between the professional and any of the clubs thattrained him cannot be established, or if those clubs do not make themselves known within 18 months of the player’s fi rst registration as a professional, the training compensation shall be paid to the association(s) of the country (or countries) where the professional was trained. This compensation shall be reserved for youth football development programmes at the association(s) in question.
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