adminExisting statutes governing the local game were crafted in 1996. Since then there have not been any changes yet the sport has changed so much in its governance globally.
A member of the committee, Tawengwa Hara, who attended the Zifa Southern Region annual general meeting in Hwange on Saturday with fellow member and Harare lawyer Timothy Sangarwe confirmed that soccer in the country was still governed by the 1996 document. He said the document had many flaws that made so many decisions hard to implement
and in cases of litigation clubs or individuals tended to have an upper hand.
“Zifa cannot operate on 1996 rules and regulations as some of the rules and regulations are no longer relevant. We have to move with the times to be relevant to be in tandem with global trends. There are many grey areas when it comes to issues of suspension of members and this needs urgent attention,” said Hara, a respected city lawyer and administrator.
Hara assured delegates at the meeting chaired by Morgan “Gazza” Dube that they will be through with the exercise ahead of the start of this year’s league programme.
The changes, he said, will have to be ratified at a Zifa Assembly annual general meeting or at an extra-ordinary meeting as it was important that the rules and regulations be implemented.
“Be assured that before the leagues start you will have adopted rules and regulations,” said the Chicken Inn secretary who served his apprenticeship at Njube Sundowns.
Sangarwe said the rules and regulations as they are today were making it difficult for some decisions to be implemented. He called upon stakeholders to forward their submissions to his committee so that they could be infused into the document they want to come up with. He said the idea was to make soccer governable with ease.
He cited a situation where Zifa had to borrow from the Fifa constitution ahead of the 2010 elections which brought Cuthbert Dube and company into office.
“We ended up borrowing from the Fifa Electoral Code. If, as a region you feel you can come up with your own rules as long as they do not conflict with Fifa and Zifa’s which take first precedence, forward them,” said Sangarwe.
He said the existing rules and regulations were not specific in some areas.
He cited the Tripple B against Hardbody case as an example.
“In the 1996 rules and regulations, there is no offence like improper registration of players. This creates a problem in such situations,” said Sangarwe.
Hardbody used a player who, on his return from Namibia, turned out for a Gweru team, without seeking a reverse international clearance, which is a must in such situations. The player, Tendai Chingarah, also played under someone else’s name before moving to Central Region side Hardbody who topped the standings before being docked 42 points for using him.
The decision was however reversed by an appeals committee and has been taken to the Centre for Commercial Arbitration.
Sangarwe highlighted the need for a sports arbitration body.
He said this could be done through an Act of Parliament with sports associations and the SRC coming up with names of people to be appointed to such a body.
The Harare lawyer said in the new constitution, bodies like referees, sports medicine and coaches association would not be part of the Zifa Assembly as members were regarded as employees of the association.
“For instance coaches and referees are employees of Zifa. Their organisations can therefore not be affiliates. These as employees are not supposed to vote hence the decision to leave them out of the Zifa Assembly,” said Sangarwe.
Some of the bodies and structures were introduced in the last decade as administrators toyed around with the idea of numbers ahead of elections.
The two ZCRC members confirmed that there had been proposals that Zimbabwe should revert to two regions which are Northern and Southern.
Online Reporter