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The Zifa Board meets in Harare today and the issue is expected to be on top of the agenda, with allegations flying around that Mwaruwari could also have been duped by the match organisers.
The national association is not happy with the fact that all former employees fired for different reasons ranging from financial impropriety to involvement in the Asiagate scandal appeared to be in charge of the match.
A seething Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze said the board members would discuss the match in which Benjani’s Friends and the Warriors clashed at the National Sports Stadium in Harare last Saturday.
“The match will certainly be on the agenda. There are outstanding issues from the match, some of them of a financial nature. Zifa did not get its share of the gate-takings and right now we have resolved to pay the players their $500 appearance fees from our sources.
“The board will discuss the issues pertaining to the game where football protocol was not observed,” said Mashingaidze.
He said the organisers of the match had initially agreed that the standing Zifa Finance Protocol be followed.
This would have seen board member responsible for finances, Elliot Kasu, and his finance committee in charge of the turnstiles.
“They were not in charge of the turnstiles. It had been agreed that the tickets people be at the stadium by 10am for the gates to open, but when our personnel got to the match, the organisers had brought in their own people and had started selling tickets by 8am,” said the Zifa chief executive officer.
Mashingaidze said the organisers were not yet finished with their machinations.
They returned later in the day to collect all cash. They allegedly disappeared without reconciling attendance figures and cash received with Zifa.
Usually, the national association stands in for other interested parties like the police, Sport and Recreation Commission and match day attendants all of whom have to be paid soon after the game.
“Under normal circumstances for all matches, the finance team collects all money for reconciliation with all interested parties at 4.15pm. The organisers collected money at 3pm and were never seen and as I speak, we are still to get what was due to the association.
“We are not happy with the way these people conducted themselves. The reason why as Zifa we were worried was that we did not want a situation similar to the Brazil game where ourselves and Benjani could be left counting the losses with some of these people nowhere to be seen,” said Mashingaidze.
The Zifa chief executive officer said they now feared Mwaruwari could have been taken advantage of for his brilliant idea.
“Mwaruwari’s novel idea could have been hijacked by some of our former employees, some of whom we were worried should not get any close to finances as we know their history,” he said.
Mashingaidze said his association had run out of patience after the organisers failed to remit money by yesterday, which was 48 hours after the written deadline.
“Their deadline was Tuesday but they failed to bring money. On Wednesday, a member of the committee called to say he wanted to meet us that evening. I could not meet him because the people to see are those from the finance committee. I emphasised that they had to pay what was due to the association. We are disturbed with why they decided to collect the cash without the association’s involvement,” said Mashingaidze.
The Zifa chief executive said what had to be understood by Zimbabweans was that they were technical experts who dealt with rules and other superior bodies like Caf, Fifa and the Sport and Recreation Commission to protect the sport, nation and Mwaruwari’s interests from sharks.
The game looked very much in doubt on Friday evening with Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede telling a radio station that the match had been called off.
This was after the two parties had failed to sign a contract pertaining to the match and the former Portsmouth and Manchester City forward saved himself the blushes by putting pen to paper on Saturday morning before they went to meet President Mugabe.
Mashingaidze expressed his association’s disappointment in that former employees had been allowed to run the show during Mwaruwari’s fundraising dinner and the soccer match.
“That was wrong. We are disappointed with Benjani, how could he work with people he knows are banned from Zimbabwe football? We are serious about a fresh leaf for Zimbabwe football but then how does the whole world look at us when we are seen dancing and dining with banned people?” said Mashingaidze.
Mashingaidze said at the beginning of the deliberations of the match, they were given Kennedy Mapeza, a player agent resident in the UK, Tsaurai Muzanenhamo and another local believed to have been very close to the old secretariat, as members of the organising committee.
However, Mwaruwari dismissed suggestions that there could have been some financial prejudice to the association or him in person. He said all was under control with Zifa set to receive its money today.
In an interview last night, Mwaruwari said Zifa’s cash was available for collection. He said it had been available but could not elaborate why it had not been handed over to the association.
Sources said last night it would be handed over to Gumede, a signatory to the staging of the match.
“I am happy with the way things proceeded. We had meetings with Zifa. It was agreed that the bank which co-sponsored the event would collect all the cash for the transactions’ reconciliation and the money be distributed accordingly,” said Mwaruwari before referring this writer to the organising committee.
In an interview from the capital last night, Muzanenhamo, a spokesperson for the committee, said at no time did they go out to engage former Zifa employees.
He said each one of the members had been given a specific role and it could have been within those lines that some individuals could have come across those deemed undesirable elements of Zimbabwean football.
“Benjani set up an organising committee and never did he at any stage come up with any names from those banished from football. Nor did we ever as a committee invite those people.
“Perhaps it was out there when members were working in their areas of expertise that one could have sought advice from some people who were behind the successful hosting of the Cosafa tournament. Those people also could have taken advantage of that to say they are still around,” said Muzanenhamo.
He said the former Zifa employees could have been deemed innocent until proven guilty by individual members of the committee.
“There is no minute from any meeting where these people were appointed either by us or Mwaruwari. They got close to the action may be because it was too difficult for anyone among us to think they were with the committee,” said Muzanenhamo.
Online Reporter