adminIT’S a fact and in the public domain that Zifa is in a disastrous state and the risk of domestic football falling into decay in the face of repeated chaos and confusion is genuine and must not be underestimated. Local football was thrown into havoc on Monday after Zifa threw out more than a dozen board members and councillors, including the association’s vice-president Omega Sibanda and board member in charge of finance Bernard Gwarada, on charges of convening an alleged illegal meeting that passed a no confidence vote in the incumbent embattled boss Cuthbert Dube.
The suspensions were announced just days after a humiliating debacle that saw Warriors’ players staging a sit-in at their hotel and missing a flight to Malawi for an African Cup of Nations qualifier over an allowance dispute.
The Warriors’ preparations for the game were abysmal after coach Callisto Pasuwa also resorted to industrial action by initially refusing to assemble a squad protesting over months of Zifa’s promises and lies regarding his outstanding wages. Pasuwa had gone for nine months without neither pay nor a contract.
Although the Warriors finally went to Malawi by bus courtesy of the goodwill of local cleric Prophet Walter Magaya, there was no apology whatsoever from Dube or Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze, who has been used to proclaim the daily destruction of the association, and by extension, national teams.
Despite the confusion surrounding their trip, the players somehow remained calm, probably because they are now accustomed to such chaotic travel arrangements.
On their return from Blantyre, Pasuwa and his locally based players’ preparations for tomorrow’s Chan qualifier against the Comoros Islands started on a bad footing, as Dube and his cronies directed their energies on firing perceived board critics.
Training only started on Thursday, a day after Comoros had jetted into the country.
Such actions by Zifa are surely an embarrassment to football and an embarrassment to the country, but shockingly, no one wants to take the blame for the present shambolic state of the association.
Dube, who is at the centre of the ongoing purges, has not said a word.
But how did we end up with him as the most powerful man in local football?
Dube emerged as the new Zifa boss in 2010 after presenting an impressive and convincing manifesto that even some sceptics reluctantly endorsed. After all, he had founded Buymore FC in 1992 and sponsored the club into the Premier Soccer League in 2002.
According to his manifesto, Dube declared that his personal attributes were anchored in good interpersonal skills, an analytical mind, humility, introspection and that he was a strategist.
Of note, he cited division of labour as paramount, saying collective responsibility was his style of leadership, adding that football needed strategists before declaring that he was endowed with strategic management skills.
Dube’s manifesto pointed out that local football was poor due to weak corporate governance and absence of a functional strategic plan. He also indicated that players’ welfare would be at the heart of his leadership as they were the most important resource in football.
The media lavished praise on Dube saying he not only seemed to inspire confidence, but also respect, reverence and passion. These praises fanned him into a terrific blaze that slowly consumed him and is now threatening to consume our football.
It was not long before he started making poorly planned, miscalculated decisions that began to eat away at Zifa’s inner core. Events on and off the field were nothing short of disaster. Players and the technical staff were often not paid for months and were instead intimidated or blackmailed.
Miraculously, Dube always managed to save himself at the 11th hour by dipping into his own pocket to fund national team travels, accommodation and allowances, and in the process breaking the good corporate governance ethics he had initially promised to strengthen and uphold.
As he continued pumping personal funds into Zifa, Dube began to hoard resources and build an empire to secure more control, power and status within the association.
He slowly started behaving like a bull in a china shop that carries the shop with him wherever he goes, as if Zifa revolved around him and that other board members and councillors were there for him.
Soon, Dube became arrogant and developed a reckless disregard for the rules under the belief that he was untouchable.
He created a secretive inner circle of both elected and unelected officials who presided over increasing fiscal irresponsibility and an unhealthy work environment.
CEO Mashingaidze emerged as the clique’s attack dog hounding Dube’s critics out of Zifa. Mashingaidze’s style and personality created an unhealthy work environment that alienated most football stakeholders by creating intolerable friction within the Zifa board and council.
Under him, internal communication has become non-productive and an atmosphere of mistrust, intimidation, secretiveness and bullying has become the hallmark of Zifa operations.
General meetings meant to give the association direction are continuously postponed and operations are largely driven by external consultants rather than elected officials.
Zifa has not audited its accounts and botched administrative duties like making timely arrangements for camps and travel have become commonplace. Such behaviour is unpardonable as it defeats any attempt to lure financial support from the corporate world to provide the required level of resources for the respective national teams.
It is pretty clear that a whole host of problems exist at Zifa and unfortunately steering local football backwards.
This unfolding crisis at Zifa presents the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) with its best opportunity to justify its existence. Dube and his clique of mafioso have held football lovers hostage for a number of years and it’s about time that the SRC bares its teeth by dismantling this casino of fraud that Zifa has become through any means necessary.
Zifa must be reclaimed from Dube and his lieutenants and threats of Fifa sanctions should not be considered in this case because ban or no ban, our football is headed for the woods as long as the status quo remains.
Dube and his men have flushed the little credibility Zifa had left down the toilet with their calamitous decisions and extraordinary levels of arrogance and one doesn’t understand why the SRC is waiting to make what should be an obvious decision next week.
Online Reporter