Zifa, Council indaba on the cards

sought an urgent meeting with Harare City Council to try and have the city fathers review the 20 percent levy for the use of Rufaro.
The Warriors beat Mali 2-1 in a Group A qualifier that attracted 28 554 paying fans and grossed US$133 000.
Sadly for Zifa they were left with a deficit of US$5979 after direct match expenses gobbled up US$139 061.
Of the major service providers to the game, Harare City Council were the biggest beneficiaries walking away with US$25 261 which constituted their 20 percent for ground hire.
Zifa president Cuthbert Dube revealed that they would be engaging the City fathers to have a review of the levy before the Warriors’ next home assignment against Liberia on September 4.
Dube reckoned that the association would have a strong case given that Zifa had played a key role in the refurbishment of Rufaro, which resulted in Fifa installing an artificial turf at the venue.
Fifa, through their Win in Africa with Africa development initiative, constructed artificial turfs around the African continent and pledged to assist in the maintenance of the venues for an initial three-year period.
It is against this background that Zifa believe they should convene an indaba with the City Council and ask the City fathers to reduce the levy they charge to football.
“We are going to engage the council on the issue of the levies, We helped to improve the turf at Rufaro as well as the dressing rooms so why are they killing us on the levies.
“We feel they should give us due consideration and reduce the levy they take because the US$25 000 they got for just the Mali game is too much,” Dube said.
Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, has however often indicated that his Council was open to discussions on the use of Rufaro with the city even considering leasing the ceremonial home of football to popular Premiership giants Dynamos.
But DeMbare are still to put their house in order before they can engage the City Council for a possible lease agreement.
Dube said although gate takings were currently Zifa’s biggest source of revenue, the association was exploring more commercial ventures to raise funds that would also cater for the Young Warriors and the Mighty Warriors.
The Zifa boss said his board would try and introduce pre-sale tickets as a permanent feature of the Warriors matches.
“All our tickets will for now continue to be printed in South Africa and we are looking at introducing pre-sales across the country and this could be done through financial institutions so that everyone gets a chance to buy a ticket before the game.
“We don’t want a lot of cash transactions on the day of the match because that is where the rot starts”.
Dube, who headed a three-man Zifa delegation to Zurich, Switzerland, for the Fifa Congress at the start of this month, said the world soccer governing body had expressed a keen interest in not only helping to recapitalise his association but also realign the flawed Zifa constitution.
Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze and board member finance Eliot Kasu accompanied Dube to Zurich where they also formally requested for at least US$1,5 million to recapitalise the cash-strapped association.
“The Fifa Congress was quite an eye opener, very highly informative and educative to us.
“We met with Fifa and they said we should quantify the assistance that we want and we have already sent it to Zurich and we also copied to Ashford Mamelodi (Fifa development officer for Southern Africa).
“Fifa want us to have three or four technical centres around the country and Ashford is also assisting us.
“They are very sympathetic to our cause and they said they are also ready to assist in clarifying the roles of the board members and the assembly to professionlise the two bodies.
“It is Fifa’s belief that some of the roles in our football are conflicting and they prepared to assist us rectify that and that is one area that our constitutional review committee is working on”.
Dube also revealed that they had handed their final Asiagate report to Fifa who were now studying it.
“The report is now complete, we have sent it to the Sports Commission.
“As Zifa board, once SRC are through with it, and we hope by the end of the month, then we will finalise on the matter.
“We gave Fifa a copy and they are very satisfied with the way we have tried to fight match-fixing and betting.
“They are studying it and they will come back to us,” Dube said.
Zifa have so far kept a tight lid on the final Asiagate report amid indications that the board wants to first discuss the dossier before the findings of the Ndumiso Gumede probe team are made public.
Dube and his board have been commended for their approach since it helped to keep the Warriors focussed on the big game against Mali.