Women football elections date set

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA says the women’s football elections will proceed as scheduled on October 22 as the mother body seeks to restore sanity to the women’s constituency which has been dogged by infighting leading to parallel structures.

Addressing the women’s stakeholders at an indaba convened at the Sports Commission’s yesterday, which sought to bring an end to the problems hounding women football, Zifa Vice President Omega Sibanda said they want to move from that saga.

“What we are saying is that the elections we are going to hold on 22 October will just include the 14 or 12 Premier League teams. They will choose their executive and through the regional structures we will get the teams to represent that.

“We won’t do it as ZIFA, it is you who are going to submit the names of the teams, some have already started, it is up to you and thereafter we will create the road map together.

“So the voting part of it, it is the clubs which vote and no one else but before 42 people voted and that was unconstitutional but I was never there when the constitution was drafted and ratified,” said Sibanda.

The ZIFA vice president, who was standing in for his boss Philip Chiyangwa who is in Egypt for a CAF extraordinary general meeting, said he observed during the deliberations and submissions that the stakeholders and club officials were not well versed with the ZIFA constitution. The indaba was attended by the director of sport in the Sports and Recreation Ministry Eugenia Chidhakwa, Sports Commission acting director general Joseph Muchechetere and Commissioners Jessie Nyakatawa and Miriam Mushayi. A number of women’s football stakeholders, including former Mighty Warriors coach Rosemary Mugadza and women football chief Miriam Sibanda were also in attendance.

“Everything was politicised (before December 5 elections) but believe me there is Philip (Chiyangwa) there is no politics. That man is great, let me be honest with you,” said Sibanda.

“He loves everybody, you might be told he doesn’t like people but he is different and he is not like that. Our secretary-general’s office is open every day for you to get the rules and regulations of our association.

“We have got two wings of women’s football, we have got what is called Zimbabwe Women’s Soccer League in our constitution, don’t ever try to import anything into this constitution. There is also what is called Zimbabwe Women’s Football.”