dyton mupawaenda
Lovemore Dube
“AS the Southern Region we are masters of our own football destiny, no one should encroach onto our lane and impose his will from elsewhere.”
These are the words of veteran football administrator Musa Mandaza.
He is organising a meeting set for Bulawayo this week where the future of the game in the region will be discussed and a foundation set for 2024 and the election season.
In an interview yesterday, Mandaza said the meeting is meant to address a number of key issues affecting the region. He said development must be the core of football business at all levels of the game’s ecosystem with merit a key factor.
The meeting will see serving administrators at clubs, Zifa structures and former national executive personnel invited to share ideas. He said these should take the game of football in the region to a higher level.
Mandaza said there were worries that some administrators were no longer coming to serve the interest of the game and the region but other forces in the game.
“As the Southern Region we are masters of our own football destiny, no one should encroach onto our lane and impose his will from elsewhere. We know ourselves, we know our environment and we know each other to an extent that no one should hand pick candidates for us. That would be a great betrayal of the game and region’s values,” said Mandaza.
He said football needs foot soldiers who are prepared to spend time even in the rural areas doing football business even without any remuneration all for the love of the game. He said if coming in is for the sake of the bright lights of Harare and access to good hotels and expensive whisky, then the game is a big loser crying out for better.
“The danger with impositions is they will want to appease their friends elsewhere at the expense of the game. So what we are saying is let us all meet this week in Bulawayo, the venue will be advised by Tuesday morning so that we start charting our way forward.
“Our leagues must run smoothly, we must all subscribe to fairness and ethical practice all the time and have a Division One League that produces real champions who would have played 34 games.
“As a region we need to improve. Let us see sporting merit as our cornerstone to all our football dreams. Let us have our own rising through the structures to running football at all levels chosen by us,” said Mandaza. He said with hopes of elections after the Zifa Normalisation Committee’s tenure ends on June 30, 2024, people had started lining up for positions.
“Don’t seek office, let people identify you to serve them. Meetings with people outside the region should be a futile exercise because it has to be us to choose who represents us as Area Zones, Provinces and the Region.
“It will be a disaster if we wake up one morning to hear a candidate not coming from out of identification processes comes telling us that his presidential candidate is So and So, we should shun such, they have their own interests not that of the game.
“We have seen situations where such people do not benefit the game and region in any way, because they are serving individuals and not the game and kid in the street in our region who has a football dream,” said Mandaza.
The Zifa elections are set for next year.
Online Reporter