adminnations and the regions into viable business ventures in line with the growing global trends.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Lazarus Dokora told chief executives and general secretaries attending a high-level Fifa seminar that opened in this tourist resort town yesterday that the game was no longer being played for charity but had become a big industry.
Dokora was the guest of honour when the seminar, which has drawn participants from 15 English speaking Eastern and Southern African countries such as Botswana, Ethiopia, Tanzania , Swaziland, Lesotho, Seychelles, Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia, began.
“African football has, over the years, been the albatross of national budgets of one country after another. Private sector participation has been more cautious.
“Participation has tended to be more on the sidelines with an attitude that says if I dive into this pool, will I catch any fish at all?
“If I do how do I know this pool is not sewage wasteland, mismanagement, patronage, selfishness, corruption, greed and lack of professionalism? On the other hand, we have talented youths who have cut their teeth in European soccer leagues. They come home to play as part of their national duty . . . we must not fail them.
“If we continue to accentuate the business as usual attitude, we will lose them too as they disabuse themselves of the very concept of national duty,” Dokora said.
He challenged the participants to be transparent and show good corporate governance in their administration of football in the region. Comrades and friends, football administrators cannot remain protected from the tools and process that enhance transparent governance. The seminar should assist administrators to come to terms with the fact that football is no longer a pastime, it is a business.
Consequently, like any business, football administration must qualitatively transform in order to harness the synergies that are clearly apparent and manifest in the sector. Players, referees, managers and right down to our lines people, these people are not objects of charity. They are workers, participants in an industry that encompasses print, radio and television media, advertising, communications, food brands, transport and others. Further it can be said that football is a group game. The players are a naïve group to the game but us who are the watchers, the spectators and the hearers . . . nobody watches the game, say on their laptop or desktop and then they keep to themselves.
“They will migrate to anyone and others who show a pair of ears on their heads to talk to those ears,” Dokora said.
Dokora also said football needed to use its power and influence on society to channel the rights messages on social behaviour.
“Let me commend Fifa for investing trough such initiatives in human capital development. How on earth can anyone plan on the basis of some gift coming through some dirty chimney once a year at
Christmas? A football association can be successful if it pays attention to the role of qualified and competent and ethical administrators.
“We need them but they may come at a cost but it is worthy the investment but the reward system could also be innovative,” Dokora said.
Zifa president Cuthert Dube, the association’s board member finance Elliot Kasu and Premier Soccer League chairman Twine Phiri, also attended the opening session of the seminar.
“Zimbabwe cannot find words to express our deep and profound gratitude and appreciation to the world football governing body for designating Zimbabwe to host this historic seminar for football chief executive officers or general secretaries.
“We can only repay Fifa’s confidence in Zimbabwe by committing publicly that we shall be the game of football’s humble servants all our lives.,” said Dube.
“Beyond this special occasion Zifa shall unconditionally serve football before all else.
“Hosting a seminar of this magnitude in Victoria Falls is a statement from Zimbabwe that the game of football qualifies to be one of the world’s wonders. Victoria Falls is one of the world’s seven wonders and its thunder and heavenly environs shall propel us to greater heights.
“The Victoria Falls is no ordinary place and I implore you all to sample the place’s varied menu during the seminar. No place can better the Victoria Falls for a venue of this proportion,” Dube said.
The Zifa president remained hopeful that participants would emerge from the week-long seminar, an enriched lot that would be ready to transform the game in their respective counties.
“We cannot wait to see the fruits of this seminar in our respective countries.
“The seminar, rich in football content, should see our general secretaries emerging out of the seminar an initiated lot that can transform our game into a powerful industry that it should be.
“We urge you to take to your respective countries all that you are going to get from this course thus taking our game forward,” Dube said.
Online Reporter