Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE past few days have been hectic for Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela, who was being pushed to issue press statements now and again disputing media reports about the toxic environment at 53 Livingstone Avenue where Zifa is housed. Poor Gwesela, the man is just voicing his principals’ position and his only involvement, especially in the last three press statements seems to have been his signature.
Gwesela comes across as a level-headed individual and it must pain him having to append his signature to statements crafted without his involvement. Zifa’s latest press statements have been about the contentious Fifa Covid-19 relief fund which Zifa should pass on to all affiliates. Actually, not a single cent from these funds must remain in Zifa coffers.
All of it must be given to affiliates, which are the rightful beneficiaries and not the national association. Zifa never addressed the real issues raised by the media reports it sought to dismiss, but personalised the issue by directing attacking the journalists that wrote the articles. It never told the nation why Zifa Bulawayo Metropolitan Province chairman Francis Ntutha’s suspension was lifted without a single hearing to clear his name for financial impropriety that his colleagues had sent him home for. Maybe the allegations against Ntutha mean nothing to the Zifa national executive and are commonplace in their daily dealings with funds.
There was also no explanation why executive committee member in charge of finance Philemon Machana designated himself the role of acting Zifa vice-president, a role with no provision in the association’s constitution. They saw no need to explain this farce, but chose to go on the offensive by attacking writers of the stories. Zifa also chose not to explain why it rushed to advance money from Fifa’s $500 000 Forward Funds to the Zimbabwe Women’s Soccer League and the men’s four Division One leagues instead of waiting for the Covid19 relief funds that Fifa will soon give each member association. All this was done in total disregard of Forward Funds regulations. The Fifa Forward Funds regulations are very clear even to the “financially unschooled” on how they should be used and crucially the consequences of misusing the funds.
The Zifa executive saw nothing wrong with that.
It boggles the mind why Zifa didn’t channel the Fifa Forward Funds to revamping the National Sports Stadium and Barbourfields Stadium for the two stadia to be brought to Caf and Fifa’s requirements. As it stands, Zimbabwe has no stadium passed fit to host any senior men’s fixtures, leaving the Warriors in danger of playing their home matches in neighbouring countries in the Africa Cup of Nations World Cup qualifiers that resume in just under three months. Instead, Zifa illegally used the Forward Funds to pay two affiliates, with Machana telling the media that they will replace the funds as soon as they get the Covid-19 relief funds.
Why the rush when there is no activity taking place in local football? Not a single player has been tested for Covid19, every sport remains suspended, so the question remains, what is Zifa trying to do? Fifa has made it clear that the Covid-19 relief funds will not just be given to member associations just like that, but member associations have to pass very stringent credit test rating. That credit rating test also involves, among other critical issues, good corporate governance and internationally recognised financial jurisprudence, in which Zifa lags far behind.
Diverting Fifa Forward Funds does not pass for financial jurisprudence. What will happen then in the event that Fifa’s Covid-19 bailout fund does not come? How will Zifa replace the money? It’s now over a month since the Covid-19 relief fund was initially meant to be sent to member associations, but there’s still nothing, yet Zifa rushed to use money meant for development on the basis of a promise. The Warriors face the stark reality of playing their home games away from home yet Zifa all along had over US$500 000 lying in its coffers instead of using it to maintain either the National Sports Stadium or Barbourfields Stadium.
If the two facilities do not pass the test and the Warriors play their home match against Algeria on foreign soil, Zimbabwean football would have reached an all-time low point, worse than the ban from qualifiers of the 2018 Fifa World Cup. Football parliamentarians, known as councillors, ought to demand answers from Zifa on why the Forward Funds were not being used for that purpose. They must question why Felton Kamambo’s national executive committee chose to pay out the two affiliates from a wrong fund source when there was a more pressing matter of noncompliant stadiums. Is this not a case of misplaced priorities and financial recklessness on the part of Zifa?
Online Reporter