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Sports Reporter
ZIFA came out swinging yesterday, dismissing the letter, on which The Herald based its article about a proposed friendly international against Mozambique, as not authentic.
The letter was passed to this newspaper, by ZIFA sources, at the weekend.
It was part of the coverage, which this newspaper has devoted, to the lack of activity, for the Warriors, during the window provided by FIFA, in the next two weeks, for friendly matches.
Thirty four other African countries have taken advantage of the window to play more than 30 friendlies, in the next two weeks, taking advantage of the availability of most of their Europe-based stars, who are not tied to their club commitments.
However, ZIFA, through their spokesperson, Xolisani Gwesela, said the report related to the invitation for a possible friendly between the Mambas and the Warriors, was not based on an official document which came from the MFF offices, or was passed into their hands.
“ZIFA did not receive any invitation from our colleagues at the Mozambican Football Federation for a friendly match,” wrote Gwesela, in his statement.
“Consequently, the letter that was cited verbatim in the story is a fictitious newsroom creation, which casts a huge shadow on the credibility of The Herald, as a reliable publicly-owned newspaper.
“We have also confirmed with Mozambique Football Federation chief executive officer, Hilario Madeira, about the authenticity of the letter and he indicated that the letter is fake and it was never generated from their federation. “We have requested the said letter from The Herald and the letter does not bear any signature, neither is it clearly addressed to the General-Secretary.
“The crest on the MFF letterhead is also not correct.
“The Herald Sports, under Robson Sharuko, has turned itself into a newspaper bent on propagating falsehoods, and displaying dangerous agenda-setting tendencies.
“In March, the paper lied that the Warriors had travelled to Botswana for an AFCON qualifier match by road while the team had actually flown to Francistown.
“While we are an organisation open to constructive criticism, we cannot to ignore deliberate efforts by individuals bent on jeopardising every good deed that ZIFA does.
“In these trying times, football and Zimbabwe can benefit a lot from unity of purpose from all parties involved.
“ZIFA continues to encourage all media practitioners to solicit for ZIFA’s comments to avoid publishing falsehoods. In this case, it was also important for the writer, and their editor, to also hear from both ZIFA and MFF.
“We are merely a football development institution and that remains our chief priority, but we have to expose damaging misrepresentations from the media.”
Online Reporter