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Augustine Hwata Harare Bureau
ZIFA have hinted that they will put a closure to the Asiagate saga between this month and March this year. The association had promised that this will be done by December last year but they have changed goal posts again. Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, said his association, which this week received heavy censure from Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa, was now eager for closure to the chapter on Asiagate.
Every time Zifa gets criticism, it appears their fallback is Asiagate.
Last year Mashingaidze advised Fifa that they would have brought the case to an end by last April.
“We’re keen to see a closure to the match-fixing scandal — the Asiagate. The cases had been dragging on and we want to have all the cases concluded between January and March,” said Mashingaidze.
Zifa vice-president Omega Sibanda promised to bring an end to the saga.
“We’re going to have a disciplinary committee that will handle all the outstanding cases. This committee could look at each individual’s file and then come up with a determination.
“This issue has been contentious and there’s need to come with final determinations,” said Mashingaidze.
This, though, is certain to be contentious, if not illegal, given that the Zifa board passed a determination on the cases and, by doing so, would be deemed to have influenced any decision that can be taken by any of their arms.
The Zifa disciplinary committee is an arm of the Zifa board and cannot be seen to be handling a case, where the board has already made a determination, without being accused of being unduly influenced by the decision of the mother body.
How Zifa can also take cases before a disciplinary committee, where an Appeals Committee has already sat to make a determination on the same case, defies logic.
Former Warriors skipper Method Mwanjali and defender Thomas Sweswe are some of the people who paid $6,000 for a review of their conviction and punishment but have not received any outcomes yet —three years after they appealed.
The Warriors will not be at the African Cup of Nations finals, kicking off in two weeks time in Equatorial Guinea, after bowing out to Tanzania in the qualifiers.
“The resources to fund the national team continued to be one of our set-backs in 2014. As we enter the New Year, we need to harness our efforts in terms of getting resources and one way would be to revive the Zimbabwe Football Trust,” said Mashingaidze.
“Some of the people who were in the Trust have quit and there’s need to replace them.”
Mashingaidze said they were going to unroll their four-year strategic plan which will mainly focus on seven key results areas — finance, development, competitions, marketing and communications, institutional capacities, legal and governance and national teams.
Online Reporter