Zifa denies getting Bots money

It has since been revealed that Botswana Football Association (BFA) footed all the costs. However, Zifa have denied receiving money from their neighbours with the association chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze saying the money they received from what he termed a partner was used to pay for camping in Harare, allowances and transport.
“We agreed on confidentiality with a partner who gave us some money whose figure I cannot make public as per agreement. The partner whom we wish to work with now and in the future gave us money to pay for accommodation, allowances for the team and transport. We were never reimbursed.
“We were approached by Botswana late November to play them in a friendly match. In return they would pay us a reciprocal visit in 2012. I advised the board about the trip and asked Botswana whether they would pay us any appearance fees and they said since they had qualified for 2012 Afcon they would have so many expenses and would not afford except to host us in terms of food, shuttle transport and accommodation while there,” said Mashingaidze.
Zifa got last minute funding from the owners of Castle Lager Premiership side FC Platinum, Mimosa Platinum Mine, to travel for the international friendly against the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) debutants, Botswana.
The Zvishavane-based company came to the association’s rescue at the last minute as the team’s scheduled road trip to Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, had already been delayed by two days as the country’s football motherbody struggled to raise money for the trip.
There were also problems with assembling players as foreign- based players excused themselves giving different reasons. Botswana had expected a full strength Zimbabwe team to aid them in their preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations finals to be held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon from the 21st of this month.
According to David Fani, the president of the Botswana Football Association, the arrangement was that Zifa were supposed to use their own funds to hire transport to Gaborone and back and then they were going to be reimbursed the costs upon arrival in Gaborone.
Fani confirmed that his association had refunded Zifa the transport costs from Harare and back. He said his association also paid for the team’s accommodation and food.
“We hosted Zimbabwe so we took care of their accommodation. We booked them into Gaborone Sun. I actually saw the receipts. We had agreed that they use their bus and when they got here we reimbursed them. So, in essence, we took care of everything,” Fani told Chronicle Sport on Thursday.
Mashingaidze said up to yesterday they had not been advised by the team of the reimbursement claimed by Botswana.
“We still have not received the money from those who travelled,” said the Zifa chief executive officer.