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Bruce Chikuni Sports Reporter
THE Normalisation Committee installed by FIFA to run the affairs of ZIFA appear to have got off to a false start amid revelations that an administrative gaffe on their part has cost the Mighty Warriors a place at the 2023 COSAFA Women’s Championships.
Following Zimbabwe’s re-admittance to the international football family, there had been high hopes that the Mighty Warriors would bounce back at the COSAFA tournament scheduled for South Africa next month.
But with no-one from ZIFA having confirmed their participation, the Mighty Warriors will once again have to miss out on the regional tourney, which they won on home soil in 2011.
It also means that domestic giants Herentals Queens have also been deprived of a chance to make their maiden appearance at the COSAFA Women’s Champions League Zonal qualifiers scheduled for this month.
Herentals Queens won the local Women’s Super League last season to qualify for the Champions League.
The omissions, which will certainly dampen spirits in the women’s game, come amid genuine concerns that Normalisation Committee chairman Lincoln Mutasa and his crew have got off to a wrong footing in their bid to reform ZIFA. Mutasa and his colleagues in the four-member committee have strangely ostracised the ZIFA secretariat since their appointment and have opted to operate on their own, far away from the association’s headquarters at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
This has also reportedly created unease following indications that they are targeting a purge of everyone at ZIFA house and bringing in their own personnel.
Mutase, however, argued that they missed out on the COSAFA registration deadlines because they passed when the country was still battling against international isolation.
Strangely, the Warriors, who were also facing the same plight are eligible to participate in the CHAN 2024 qualifiers, which are also scheduled for next month and the 2026 World Cup qualifiers due to start in November.
“The problem was that we failed to reach these deadlines because we were not eligible to play inter-national football,” Mutasa said.
“We were re-admitted on July 11 while these deadlines closed on 30 June and it was impossible for us to convince COSAFA.
“Even when we tried, COSAFA wrote to us that it was too late for our Mighty Warriors and Herentals Queens to participate.”
Investigations by the Zimpapers Sports Hub have, however, revealed that the COSAFA secretariat actually tried in vain to follow-up with the Normalisation Committee but could not get anyone to confirm on time, whether Zimbabwe were interested in any of the Women’s competitions. Sources close to the goings on at ZIFA, revealed that the Normalisation Committee’s biggest undoing has been their decision to completely ignore the association’s staff and “try to re-invent the wheel”.
“You cannot arrive at an institution like ZIFA and then ignore or try to fire everyone who has been there and try to do things your own way when the staff are the ones with the files and even the institutional memory.
“You would need a proper hand-over-take-over or a gradual replacement because it is not like business had ground to a halt when the committee was appointed, football was being played in Zimbabwe and the biggest problem was actually at board level.”
“COSAFA have a reputation of leaving doors for participation open to even a week before a tournament especially for member nations.
“In Zimbabwe’s case, COSAFA through their president (Artur de Almeida e Silva) were heavily involved in the protracted negotiations between the Sports and Recreation Commission, CAF and FIFA which culminated in Zimbabwe’s re-admission and the same COSAFA could then not have been the ones to close the door on Zimbabwe’s participation.
“But for the sake of their organisation and logistical planning COSAFA tried to get confirmation from Zimbabwe, which could have easily been done had the Normalisation Committee not chosen to go it alone and operate without a secretariat,” the sources said.
The Normalisation Committee have not had regular working contact with the secretariat and sources claim they decided to conduct business away from the ZIFA House and are reportedly renting up-market offices to the tune of US$8 000 per month.
At the same time, the toilets at 53 Livingstone Avenue are non-functional because there is no running water. Workers have described the situation as a “health hazard.”
Earlier this week, the Normalisation Committee hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons on social media platforms after they seemed to undo a noble move to advertise for the Warriors and Mighty Warriors coaches, albeit using a template copied from the Football Association of Zambia.
“When you do not work hand in glove with the secretariat, you are bound to make such blunders as was witnessed in the advert for a national coach, which advert also seemed to lower the qualification standards for the national coaches.
“In terms of the CAF club competitions, the coaches must hold a CAF A badge or Pro-license. “This shows that the issue of qualifications for international competitions continues to be upheld by CAF and that is why at inter-club competitions they require CAF A license for both the head and assistant coach.
“For the national teams, CAF even insist on those qualifications or better and they stress that coaches from other confederations must be in possession of a Pro-license in order to coach national teams,” the sources said.
To underline the significance that CAF attach to maintenance of standards, reigning Premiership champions FC Platinum were in 2020 forced into a coach change and fire Dutchman Pieter de Jongh.
This was after it emerged that De Jongh was neither CAF A nor Pro-Licence holder when they engaged him. De Jongh would have been ineligible for the FC Platinum dugout during their Champions League campaign.
While the Normalisation Committee may have their reservations with the ZIFA secretariat, the same staff won the plaudits of the SRC and the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation for diligently ensuring that the Warriors’ preparations and participation at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in Cam-eroon were flawless, despite a sustained bid by the ousted Felton Kamambo board to get Zimbabwe dismissed from the competition.
Some football observers have also criticised the continued involvement of FIFA official Solomon Mudege in the ZIFA saga. Mudege is a Zimbabwean and critics argue he could be conflicted because of his previous connections with the previous ZIFA board.
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