Now Cuthbert is the match fixer?

You actually get a feeling that Zimbabweans do not believe or they do not want to believe that the Warriors took part in illicit pre-meditated football matches while away from home, and the players, coaches and officials were given some pieces of silver for selling their souls.

In fact, you get a feeling that some people do not care that the Warriors suddenly became too weak to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations finals after going to the finals in Egypt (2004) and Tunisia (2006). Why are we not asking ourselves what was happening from 2007 to date?

You get a feeling that some people are saying “Asiagate, so what”. They do not care about the impact that match-fixing has had on the performance of the national team and image of the country in the football world.

The kind of zeal that many people have suddenly garnered to jump to the corner of people implicated and convicted for match-fixing is shocking, and at the end of the day, it appears Cuthbert Dube and his Zifa board are the match-fixers.

In fact, they were referred to as “extortionists” this week by some activist group called Pan-African Development, led by former Dynamos chairman Ignatius Pamire, after Zifa opted to fine the bulk of the players for taking part in match-fixing as opposed to banning them from playing football.
Suddenly, Dube, Ndumiso Gumede and Benedict Moyo are the bad guys.

The players and officials, who went to Asian countries and were corrupted into selling the national flag and allowing foreigners to sit on the bench and coach the national team into throwing matches, as we hear from reports by Zifa, are now victims who need protection from the media, football fans and human rights activists.

You get a feeling that people are being harnessed into condoning match-fixing, which is very wrong and dangerous if we want to be taken seriously as a football nation. Of course, in every process, there are bound to be flaws and it was highly likely that Zifa and the Ethics committee would run into problems in trying to rid the game of match-fixing and bring perpetrators to book.

There are various arguments that are being raised by those who are in the corner of the Asiagate “victims”. For the record, I have nothing personal against all those who have been implicated in the scam, some of them are my good friends but if someone has done wrong, they should face the music and the only way we can assist them is to plead through mitigation.

I was one of the proponents of imposing fines on the players who participated in the scam because I felt it was not their own idea in the first place and there was little or nothing they could do after being called up for national duty, flown to far away countries and then told “this is how we do it.”

I believed that was a big mitigatory factor for the players and I felt it was not fair to impose the same penalty to players like Danisa Phiri and Guthrie Zhokinyu and a person deemed to be the mastermind like Henrietta Rushwaya, which was a life ban.

Moreso, Zifa will need to do a lot of explanation as to how people with heavy sentences were pardoned, while some who had less sentences were made to see through their punishments.

There was a lot of debate after Ernest Sibanda and Joey Antipas, who had five year-bans as recommended by the Ethics Committee were pardoned, while some people who had less recommended sentences of two years, Methembe Ndlovu, Luke Masomere and even Norman Mapeza (six months), were made to serve their sentences or appeal if so they wish, depending on whether they have the $6 000 to lodge the appeal.

But the Ethics Committee said that some people were credible witness, like Sibanda, without whose honesty this time around, the whole process would have been difficult, thus they were rewarded for telling the truth about Asiagate, and the same goes to players like Nyasha Mushekwi and Washington Arubi, who had wholly suspended sentences.

There are also those who feel players and officials were just punished without going through a proper disciplinary process where they are charged, and put through a hearing.

That is a valid point, but it all depends on what parameters were given to the Ethics Committee by Zifa, whether they were meant to investigate, do trials and recommend punishment.

And when you are dealing with a case which involves close to 100 people, some of whom are outside the country, it becomes difficult to follow some of these procedures and you have to sympathise with Zifa on that point.

There are some people who also refused to give evidence or co-operate in any way, and in such a situation, what do you expect the Ethics Committee and Zifa to do? Having said that, it is also prudent to remember that Zifa was appraising Fifa in all processes of investigating match-fixing, which means Fifa knew the process that was being followed by Zifa and were happy with it.

In fact, it is highly unlikely that Fifa will overturn any decision reached by the Ethics Committee, Zifa or the Appeals Committee.

Any other decisions reached outside football bodies will not be tolerated by Fifa, so whether we like Dube and his board of not, we just have to appreciate that they are in charge and the only thing we can do is to plead for leniency for our boys.

I have a strong conviction that most of the players were led astray into not cooperating with the committee because they were made to believe that Dube and his team did not have the teeth to bite, and now the boys are suffering alone running around looking for money to pay the fines.

What happened during the Asiagate era will remain a dark chapter in our football and should not be allowed to happen again.

But we take solace in that the bulk of the players will be able to continue with their careers. 
Yes, the fines might be high, ranging from $1 000 to $7 000, but we are talking about life and death here, the boys better run around and raise money to pay their fines, even if it means negotiating terms, something which I believe Zifa will not refuse because they know that our footballers cannot afford to raise so much at one go.

It remains to be seen who the non governmental organisation which has given Zifa 14-days to nullify the Asiagate penalties will represent, because for their case to hold, they must have a willing constituency, but as we know, football people know that they can not deal with their cases via the courts of law, with Zifa instigating penalties for anyone who takes football matters to court.

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