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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
ASPIRING Zifa presidency candidate Nigel Munyati has made stunning revelations that incumbent Zifa president Cuthbert Dube has never set foot at the Zifa House at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
He also disclosed that the Zifa boss had probably watched just four football matches ever since he came into office in 2010.
Munyati revealed this when he met Bulawayo journalists at a hotel on Saturday afternoon as part of his whirlwind tour of the provinces to gather support for his candidature.
“I am a board member of Zifa and what I can tell you about the president is that he has never set foot at the Zifa offices, despite being its chief. It’s shocking really but that’s the truth,” said Munyati.
He said as president, Dube would be expected to meet his staff on a regular basis but that had not happened. Munyati also disclosed that he had last seen Dube at a board meeting in November and since then none had been called for members.
Said Munyati: “I also know for a fact that the president has watched just four matches since coming in as the Zifa president, the Brazil international friendly, Bob Super Cup, one Mighty Warriors match and one match when Fifa president, Sepp Blatter visited, that’s it.”
Munyati, who said he was going to reduce or cancel the six percent that clubs pay as levies to Zifa, further expressed his dismay at Dube’s management when he said it would be a very sad and dark day in the history of Zimbabwean football if Dube was re-elected to the biggest post in the country’s football scene during the March 29 elections.
“If that man wins, I can tell you it will be a sad chapter in the history of our football.
“It’s simply unimaginable. The electorate should be careful and vote for football brains and that is me, if he wins, God help us,” said Munyati, founder and director of the famed Aces Youth Academy.
Munyati said Dube had not done much to justify his re-election and this was time for change.
Efforts to contact Dube were fruitless.
Four candidates are vying for the Zifa presidency, former boss Trevor Carelse-Juul, Dube, fireband Harare City chairman Leslie Gwindi and Munyati.
Meanwhile, Munyati said there was a need for the football family to appreciate that the much talked about Asiagate scandal had failed.
He said if voted into office, he would not have any hesitation in pardoning the likes of Sunday Chidzambwa and Guthrie Zhokinyu who were handed life bans by the Zifa board.
“If President Mugabe could pardon well over a thousand hard core criminals, who are we of a lesser stature not to forgive our own? Yes they may be legal repercussions but some of the guys are my friends who I can talk to not to take that route,” said Munyati.
He however was quick to point out that he was not condoning Asiagate in anyway.
“It’s a fact, some people took money to throw away games but we have failed to come up with a legal framework to pin these culprits and our situation has been made worse by Fifa’s failure to endorse those sanctions so at the end of the day why can’t we agree that the crusade has failed and we move on,” said Munyati.
Munyati said the hand of reconciliation would not be in any way condoning what happened and remained convinced that the way the whole issue left everyone shaken, no player would ever want to take money to throw away games.
“Let us move on as a football country, why should we persecute our own sons when Fifa has refused to endorse the sanctions. In any event some of us have done worse off things as administrators. Why should you punish an 18-year-old kid for taking a $500 bribe when we have paid 10 times more than that to manipulate the vote?” said Munyati.
He was accompanied on his visit to Bulawayo by his campaign manager former Dynamos secretary-general Tawanda Murerekwa. They are set to leave the city today for the Midlands.
Munyati is a former Black Aces player, chairman and has headed several international organisations.
Online Reporter