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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
THE ZIFA Restructuring Committee is expected to wind down business this month and hand over their recommendations to the Sports Commission on December 15.
The committee led by Blessing Rugara was set up by the Sports and Recreation Commission in December last year, in line with the provisions of Section 21, as well as 19(b) and 20 (c) of the SRC Act, to tackle issues of strategic nature in the search for solutions in Zimbabwe’s perennial football administration problems.
Sports Commission chairman Gerald Mlotshwa yesterday revealed the committee was in the final stages of their mandate. The ultimate goal is to reboot the Zimbabwe football administration structures before approaching FIFA for the reinstatement of ZIFA’s membership that was suspended in April this year.
Mlotshwa challenged the football stakeholders to fix the game and make the sport viable before they can rush to seek re-admittance into the FIFA family.
He believes the rot in football has been allowed to go on for too long and the focus must be correcting some of those institutional mistakes rather than prioritising on the lifting of the FIFA suspension with no corrective measures having been taken.
Mlotshwa said this during a media briefing on the release of the ZIFA forensic audit report, which unearthed financial irregularities, yesterday.
The general sentiment has been that after the regulator’s processes, the course of action must point to getting FIFA’s attention on the way forward.
But the respected lawyer feels when the time is right the relevant authorities will lobby for the lifting of the FIFA suspension.
“This is our game, our football, there is everything wrong with our football at this point in time and everything that is wrong did not happen today, it did not happen last year, it’s something that has been happening over a period of time.
“In that period of time ask yourself, has FIFA, as the world governing body, come in and say ‘hey we are not happy about the way football is being administered in this country, you need to do something about it.’ I don’t think that has happened at all,” said Mlotshwa.
“They have left it, and have said ‘yes ZIFA is a member of FIFA, but the way you administer that game in your country is up to you.
“Yes, we have got FIFA statues which you guys should follow etc and they have not been followed a lot of the time at all. But has FIFA come in to try and address that situation? I don’t think so at all, and they will have their own reasons, I can’t speak for FIFA,” he said.
The administrator feels the healing of football requires everyone’s effort.
“But the point I am trying to make is we know that there is everything wrong in our game, it’s for us Zimbabweans, the stakeholders, to fix. We must never look and say FIFA is the great god of football and they are going to come in and say, ‘well done ZIFA and SRC’, and pat us on the back, that’s not going to happen.
“Let’s not fool ourselves, let’s take responsibility for the state that our game is in. Let’s all fix it collectively, when we have fixed this game and we are happy about the way it is being administered, that is the time for us to go back to FIFA collectively, not just as ZIFA or SRC, or Government but collectively as a nation and say we have fixed our game, there is the proof, now we can talk about the lifting of the suspension,” he said.
The Restructuring Committee have delivered on the first part of their mandate by requesting a ZIFA audit and will present their full report on their findings next month.
However, all this will be an ongoing process that will not necessarily mean the authorities will immediately engage FIFA on the way forward.
“Let’s move away from this notion of thinking that everything that we are doing here is intended to ensure that FIFA lifts Zimbabwe’s suspension. That’s not the intention, the intention is to fix football administration in Zimbabwe that is the priority, and that is SRC’s stated priority.
“Let’s fix the game, when we fix it then we go back to FIFA and say we are happy we have done everything that we think needs to be done.
“Let’s not be beholden to FIFA at this point in time, if we do that, the game in this country will never ever improve. We want to fix the game, we want to make sure that football is viable as a sport, as a means of recreation, and also importantly as a business,” said Mlotshwa.
The Sports Commission boss said the audit report contents have proved that local football is still far from being run as a business and being associated with meaningful corporate sponsorship.
“What you are seeing from this audit report, what we are seeing from everything that has happened, leading up to the suspension and the suspension itself, what we are seeing is that football in this country is far from even qualifying as a viable business, and if this was a company would you put money into it, would you invest in it? You wouldn’t so we must look at it from that perspective,” said Mlotshwa.
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