adminThere were rumours doing rounds in football circles that the Zifa president was trying to use his influence to direct the Constitutional Review Committee to call for an early election after amending the constitution.
In November, Dube commissioned a four-member Constitutional Review Committee made up of legal practitioners Cosmas Mukwesha, Tino Hove, Timothy Sangarwe and Tawengwa Hara who is the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League board member competitions to amend the Zifa constitution.
At the weekend the committee met in Chinhoyi to finalise the draft which they were expected to present to Dube yesterday.
The Zifa board is expected to come up with a position regarding the suspended board members who are linked to the Asiagate and Centralgate scandals.
The suspended executive members are vice-president responsible for technical affairs Kenny Marange, Zifa board member competitions Methembe Ndlovu and Zifa Northern Region boss Solomon Mugavazi.
The other suspended board members are Gift Banda and Patrick Hokonya of the Southern and Central Regions.
“The next elections will be held on 31 March 2014. I have six more years at Zifa as I am confident of winning the 2014 elections.
“When we meet at our next board meeting we are going to come up with the position on suspended members. However, it must be noted that we still form a quorum in our board meetings as we have regional representatives.
“The by-elections might have to happen to fill the vacant positions once the assembly ratifies them,” Dube said.
The assembly is set to meet on the 31st of this month and that is when the final draft of the constitution will be ratified at the Zifa annual general meeting before being sent to the Sport and Recreation Commission and thereafter to Fifa for endorsement.
Information gathered is that Fifa raised concerns on the number of those who vote at the assembly.
Dube also confirmed this on Saturday during a press briefing held for Southern Region sports journalists at the Zifa Village.
“We have too many people in our council and surely something must be done to have an effective assembly,” Dube said.
Thirty-four councillors vote and the number is likely to be reduced to 24.
Those that might be excluded from voting include referees, football medics, coaches, tertiary, Naph, Nash, five-aside and women’s soccer representatives.
They will be allowed to attend the assembly as affiliates without voting powers.
This means that only the six Premiership representatives, vice-chairmen and secretary-generals of the four Zifa Regions and 10 provincial chairpersons will elect board members.
In football, referees, coaches and medical staff are employees and as such they cannot vote for their employers.
Five-a-side is an affiliate of Zifa and they will have to lobby for their programmes as associate members just like the above bodies.
Schools soccer bodies — Naph, Nash and tertiary — are likely to fall under one umbrella which might be named Youth Football and will accommodate junior football.
The Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze confirmed that some of the affiliates that used to vote would be stripped of that right in the event that a new
constitution sails through.
“It is true that there will be many changes as the constitution has to meet Fifa requirements and above all the laws of the country. This means that some of the associations will lose their voting rights and join the likes of Footballers Union of Zimbabwe who attend the Zifa Assembly as associate members. The honorary members also attend assembly but they do not have voting rights.
“World over, employees are excluded from the parliament of football and the Zifa constitution has to follow that trend,” said Mashingaidze.
Online Reporter