Mamelodi worried about Zifa finances

that efforts are being made to help the bankrupt association find ways out of their quagmire.
Mamelodi was in the country for a working visit on Monday during which he made a final assessment Zifa’s Goal Project Two and evaluated the organisational review programme at the association that has resulted in new staff, mostly middle management, being recruited to strengthen the secretariat.
But it is the lack of funding that has stalled the implementation of programmes which the Zifa leadership had set out to achieve, which is worrying Mamelodi.
Zifa have actually had to rely on the benevolence of their president Cuthbert Dube for survival with the Harare business executive revealing last week that has to date used more than US$550 000 to ensure the associations stays afloat.
Dube has acknowledged that it is not sustainable for an individual to try and keep funding the Zifa activities and his board will be under pressure in the coming year to look for sponsorship.
The Zifa president has also been calling on the government and the corporate world to chip and partner Zifa in such ventures like catering for the different national teams.
Mamelodi, who left Harare yesterday morning, said the Fifa headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland was still considering Zifa’s unprecedented application to the world soccer governing body for assistance with recapitalisation.
“Zifa spoke about the need for re-branding and people must feel there is a new Zifa because it will help rebuild the image of the association.
“The Achilles Heel to efforts to try to go forward with their vision is the lack of resources especially funding and Zifa are sitting on a huge deficit, long overdue debts.
“Whenever opportunities will be available (at Fifa) we will consider them and Zifa will be given top priority for any help.
“The difficulties that Fifa have are that they have structured systems to assist associations but the application for recapitalisation will have to be considered at a level which is higher than my office.
“We have not heard any feedback yet from Zurich on that.
“But the difficulty we need to tackle and it has been our observation is that as long as that financial crisis hangs over Zifa it limits what they can achieve and we have to find solutions.
“I am happy though that Zifa are applying their minds to finding funding knowing that it is a stumbling bloc,” Mamelodi said.
Mamelodi said he was also pleased to note that despite their financial constraints, the Zifa leadership had battled to ensure the association fulfilled some of their objectives in 2011, including getting the national teams to participate in all the major competitions such as the Nations Cup qualifiers and the All-Africa Games qualifiers.
Zifa, Mamelodi also said, had this year been very fortunate to receive the goodwill of Fifa who assisted them in a number of programmes.
“It is unprecedented for Fifa to have had so many activities in Zimbabwe in one year, including the historic visit by President Sepp Blatter.
“There have been a number of courses and actives for women, grassroots administration technical consultants that have been held this year and next week it’s Futsal,” Mamelodi said.
The highly-regarded former Cosafa secretary-general, was however a hugely satisfied man to note that Zifa have at last moved much ground in completing Goal Project 2.
He remained upbeat that the local soccer body will be eligible to receive Fifa funding (US$500 000) for the third phase of the development programme.
Mamelodi has worked round the clock to ensure the Zifa Goal Project which had failed to take off for several years as Zimbabwe lagged behind other countries in the region and the continent in general, was now up and running again.
“I am very satisfied with the Goal Project. We have a team of professionals who are very reliable who are working on it and we have given them until 15 January to hand over the site and we will submit documentation on what we need to do with the place.
“We are going to have a conference centre and we must make sure we meet the Goal Bureau deadline in March so that Zimbabwe can start Goal Project 3.
“I am so happy that finally the dream that many people of the Zifa Village is taking shape and we will be guided by the consultants on how we proceed.
“I also followed up on the organisational review and I am happy that operationally Zifa is getting better now and there is middle management there.
“It is good to see Jonathan (Mashingaidze) being surrounded by a group of helpers who have lessened the burden on him although it is unfortunate that we have lost the marketing man.
“It is also good to see that Zifa now have a full IT set-up that will be handling players’ transfers and registration and the Fifa experts have no doubt that Zimbabwe will utilise the equipment (printers, computers and servers). We are happy that Zifa are also making efforts to amend their constitution because if they do not do that it was always going to clash with the vision of the new Zifa and the changes that are being implemented including the recruitment that has been done at the office.
“The Zifa councillors will have an input in the amended constitution and the organisational review will influence and necessitate the changes in the constitution,” Mamelodi said.