adminALTHOUGH player morale seems to have vastly improved since the new Zifa administration led by Philip Chiyangwa came into office in December 2015, one problem keeps cropping up. Apart from the rampant scandals that appear to be married to Zifa and refuse to be divorced, former players that served in the executive have been a major disappointment.
Former Highlanders player and coach Methembe Ndlovu found himself being disgraced in 2010 for his involvement in the Asiagate scandal as the Under-23 coach after being ushered in as a Zifa board member in the same year. He served a two-year suspension up to 2013.
He was followed by former Dream Team defender John Phiri in the same Cuthbert Dube-led board, who probably made the mistake of being part of the inner circle, thereby compromising himself in the process. As a member of Dube’s inner circle, Phiri allowed himself to be used as a pawn to isolate other board members opposed to the status quo and unfortunately played a huge role in running down our football.
National team players’ welfare was disregarded and coaches and players alike were discontented and they felt betrayed by one of their own. They thought Phiri, as a former respected member of the Dream Team, would stand up for their welfare, but it later turned out that he was there for himself. Phiri stood by as Dube personalised Zifa and things fell apart.
He had sold his soul to Dube and was no longer his own. His destiny was firmly entangled in Dube’s cobweb and his demise came as no surprise.
As calls grew louder for Dube to leave Zifa last year in the run-up to the Zifa extraordinary congress, some former players demanded that a slot be reserved for them in the executive as they were tired of “non-football” people running the show and blundering in the process.
As they voiced their concerns about how the game was being run in the country, they never made reference to the disgrace Phiri and Ndlovu had brought on former players and how they felt this could be addressed.
Two other former players put their names forward for board posts. James Takavada put his name for the Zifa presidency, while Edzai Kasinauyo ran for a place in the executive. As we all know, Takavada lost while Kasinauyo was elected into the executive committee. But hardly four months into his new role, Kasinauyo has been expelled for his alleged role in match-fixing, although he is yet to be formally charged.
But that alleged link to match fixers alone has damaged his reputation and led people to question if ex-footballers are fit to run the local game. We are convinced that as a former player, Kasinauyo must have been approached many times as a player with financial inducements to throw games, be it in national colours or for the various clubs he played for. Whether or not he ever took money as a player to manipulate results, we cannot pronounce, but he obviously knew the hazards of match-fixing.
It’s just sad when alleged match-fixing involves ex-players, because this muddies the path for clean and capable former players that want to take up roles in football administration. It’s also tragic that ex-players that were stringently vocal about the need for more of their type to be involved in the running of the game are now quiet in the midst of this match-fixing scandal directly linking one of their own.
These ex-players need to work out a plan that involves them starting from the bottom up if they are really serious about taking over the running of the game. Maybe Phiri and Kasinauyo would have fared less badly if they had spent more years in club management and worked their way up instead of rushing to contest Zifa posts. Being a former player alone is not sufficient.
Online Reporter