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Ray Bande Senior Sports Reporter
SOCCER Coaches Union of Zimbabwe president Moses ‘Bambo’ Chunga has called on the newly elected Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa to immediately practise what he preached during his colourful campaign trail that saw him assume the country’s highest office in football administration.
The Harare oligarch – the one with the least, if any, experience in football administration among Saturday’s election candidates – emphatically romped to victory ahead of former Dynamos and Premier Soccer League secretary Leslie Gwindi, former Zifa chairman Trevor Carlse Juul and the 1984 Soccer Star of the Year James Takavada.
But a key stakeholder in the game of football in the country, Chunga, believes that the Harare businessman-cum-politician has no time to celebrate the election victory given a myriad of challenges awaiting his immediate attention.
In an interview soon after the announcement of the result at Zifa Village in Mt Hampden in Harare, Chunga said the debt-ridden football association has a lot of work to do to cleanse the mess that it finds itself in.
He said it is also necessary to put the past behind us and invest our energies in creating an attractive brand out of Zifa.
“As coaches we believe that managing Zifa is no child’s play and we are happy that the election is over and this is the time to practise what we preached during the election.
“It appears everyone is ready to put the past behind and work towards a better Zifa. It is not about individual. They could have put any other person on that position but what is important at the end of the day is to ensure that we deliver.
“At the end of the day, to us Chiyangwa is the Zifa president and not Pinnacle Properties president hence he will be expected to deliver as Zifa president. My only hope is that football will be the winner at the end of it all. They just have to deliver on the promises that they made during the election,” he said.
In the same election, Omega Sibanda got 34 votes while 23 councillors voted for his rival Lincoln Mutasa.
Zifa Central Region boss Felton Kamambo, former Warriors midfielder Edzai Kasinauyo, Eastern Region chairman Piraishe Mabhena and Philemon Machana were elected board members.
In his glossy 18-page manifesto, Chiyangwa pledged to restore constitutional democracy, accountability and transparency in the administration of the affairs of Zifa and the recruitment of a crack cadre of professional and dedicated members of staff.
The flamboyant Harare businessman promised to expunge the legacy debt through the creation of innovative national and international fund-raising initiatives.
He pledged to develop comprehensive soccer structures from grassroots level and promotion of competitive corporate sponsorship for the Premier Soccer League, the First, Second and Third Divisions, the Reserve League, as well as Social Soccer League.
In his election campaign, Chiyangwa told councillors and the nation at large that he would ensure the creation of a special welfare fund for professional soccer players that will guarantee timely payment of their salaries, create life, work, health and disability insurance policies for them, as well as negotiate a special dispensation with the National Social Security Association (NSSA) for sports programmes, given the short working life of professional soccer players.
He promised to create a loan scheme for the benefit of national soccer team players through a sinking fund sponsored by the Ministries of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation and the NSSA.
The Harare businessman pledged to guarantee competitive professional contracts and fees for our national players and coaches in a bid to alleviate poverty among people who have household names.
He also told the nation that he would ensure that soccer is accorded a special national healing status as a vehicle of cultural cohesion and a dynamic platform for our ongoing diplomatic push for international positive “perception management”.
Online Reporter