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The association has in the last few months come under increasing pressure to conduct appeal hearings for the individuals who paid their fees to challenge the penalties meted out to them after a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ahmed Ebrahim found them guilty of having taken part in the Asiagate scam.
Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, however , said yesterday that they had set March 31, as the deadline by which they would have dealt with the appeals.
Mashingaidze said he would today meet with the appeals committee members to finalise on the logistics for the hearings to commence.
Premiership sides Shabanie Mine and CAPS United are also eagerly awaiting the start of the hearings as the outcomes are key in determining the fate of their head coaches Luke Masomere and Taurai Mangwiro respectively.
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Both Shabanie Mine and CAPS United have decided against finding new coaches for the 2013 season at least until Zifa hear Masomere and Mangwiro’s appeals but the two clubs are racing against time as the Premiership programme for this year is now set to burst into life during the Easter weekend.
Unlike their colleague Sunday “Mhofu’’ Chidzambwa, who is at Black Leopards in the South African Premiership, the bans on Masomere and Mangwiro just like that of Dynamos defender Guthrie Zhokinyi took immediate effect last year, because they are plying their trade on the domestic front which is within the Zifa jurisdiction.
Chidzambwa and the likes of the former Warriors pair of Bidvests Wits central defender Thomas Sweswe and Method Mwanjali of Mamelodi Sundowns will only get to feel the impact of the Asiagate bans in the event that Fifa decide to endorse the penalties and give them a worldwide effect.
“Some of the appeal committee members have been out of the country but I am meeting the advocates tomorrow to finalise on the logistics of the appeals.
“As Zifa we now want to dispose of all the appeals by 31 March because we have bigger fish to fry and we would not want to continue being held back by this issue.
“We are just finalising on the logistics and after the meeting with the advocates tomorrow (today) we will notify the appellants of the dates of the hearings.
“Once everything has been put in place it should take a day or two to complete the hearings because what must be remembered is that an appeal is different from a fresh hearing.
“The bigger part of the inquiry into match-fixing was done by the Justice Ebrahim committee so in this case it is more about the appellants presenting their heads of arguments to the committee,’’ Mashingaidze said.
Zifa, Mashingaidze also said, had since responded to Fifa’s request for more information on the Asiagate scam which the world soccer governing body’s legal department had demanded.
Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke said last month that the world body had delayed deciding on whether or not to endorse the Asiagate sanctions because they had requested for additional information from Zifa. “We have since sent to Fifa four huge box files of the transcripts as well as how the process was done and this was a follow-up to our earlier correspondence to them dated 30 October 2012.
“The four boxes are labelled ABCD in terms of the contents because there are 1 500 pages against each of the individuals cited and these pages have records of what questions were asked and the verbatim record of the answers given by each individual who appeared before the Ebrahim committee.
“Although some groups tried to dissuade players from appearing we are glad that they saw reason and went to give their evidence and were even allowed to bring in their attorneys.
“In going through all those box files, Fifa are checking whether the process was correctly done and whether each individual was given the opportunity to appear before the Ebrahim committee and was not prejudiced in any manner during that due process,’’ Mashingaidze said.
Online Reporter