ZIFA NEED A NEW BROOM

James Mudzivare-Zimpapers Sports Hub Correspondent 

IN the week that football has been mourning the passing on of its rare breed of administrators, Ronnie Chihota, debates on the state of the national game inevitably led to the apparent dearth of genuine leaders at ZIFA. 

ZIFA’s Normalisation Committee are expected to roll out an elections roadmap and ensure polls choose a substantive executive committee for the association are held. 

World football governing body FIFA have since indicated that elections would have to be held in terms of the current ZIFA constitution that was last amended in 2013, with the incoming Congress then being tasked to alter the statutes. 

There is no doubt, however, that the focal point of the ZIFA elections remains that of the identity of the man at the helm of the association — the president.

Following a forgettable spell under Felton Kamambo, which ended in ignominy after his board was recalled by congress, ZIFA will be looking for a fresh start, possibly under a new leader.

Given the toxicity that often characterises the governance of the game, ZIFA need a new broom that can sweep clean in the manner that Chihota introduced some professionalism in the Premier Soccer League via his Blackpool Football Club after they acquired the franchise of Black Mambas in 1993. 

Described, by veteran sports journalist and commentator Charles Mabika, as a passionate and dedicated administrator, who gave instead of taking from football, Chihota was laid to rest at his rural home in Chihota on April 30. 

“As the head of an exciting and dedicated seven-man Blackpool board of directors, he led by example. 

“At Ndochi, their motto as leaders was about giving and not taking from the game, which sadly has been a horrendous and sickening manifestation amongst some of our football administrators in the last two decades or so,” Mabika said. 

Indeed, ZIFA need givers and not takers who are dedicated to the growth of the game. 

Many neutrals believe that ZIFA should also avoid recycling the same old leadership that has failed the game under the guise of being “experienced councillors”. 

Just like Chihota in 1993, there is a new breed of administrators who have used their passion for the game to try and improve the standards in the PSL and the Division 1 leagues. 

Refreshingly for local football, there is still a lot of hope, given the availability of some dedicated givers and leaders who include legislators Farai Jere, Innocent Benza and Pedzisayi Scott Sakupwanya. 

Sakupwanya who has helped keep the Yadah Stars brand alive in the PSL, was involved with his hometown side Mabvuku United for several years. 

And just like Jere and Benza before him, he has gone a step further and established his club — Scotland — who are playing in the Northern Region Soccer League and crucially offering employment and a way out of social vices for the youth in Mabvuku and Tafara. 

Simba Ndoro and his Simba Bhora outfit, Walter Magaya and his Yadah, who are both in the PSL, have also shown what football stands to gain if they lure and invest in passionate leaders of the Ronnie Chihota ilk, who are ready to pour huge sums of money for the sake of the national game. 

Bulawayo Chiefs director Lovemore Sibanda has sacrificed a lot for the game to ensure that the City of Kings has more than just the Highlanders and Chicken Inn franchises to look up to for the elite game.

To their credit, the Sports and Recreation Commission’s restructuring committee rightfully observed that Zimbabwean football needs new brooms and cannot continue to be held back by archaic statutes that have seen the country fall behind other nations on the continent and across the globe.

Football needs domestic investors before it can get into partnerships with international corporates. 

It is a game that is crying out for leaders who are willing to sacrifice to get it out of the woods and such kind of sacrifices, as shown even by teams like Sheasham who refurbished Bata stadium in Gweru. 

Because of its strength in numbers and popular appeal for both men and women, football remains one of the biggest avenues through which youth empowerment, as enshrined by the Second Republic’s vision, can be easily carried out. 

The game has the power to also take the youth away from various social vices, chief among them drug and sub-stance abuse.