adminin global football by naming a constitutional review committee that should come up with a refined document to be used in the governance of the domestic game.
The local soccer mother body has been using 1996 rules and regulations while the few amendments that were made to the constitution are largely controversial as they were designed more to suit individuals rather than serve the game.
Even the run up to the elections that brought the current board into power was somewhat blighted by the controversy over which constitution was being used as there were three documents in place at the time campaigning intensified. With the Sport and Recreation Commission also not offering much in terms of assistance on that matter, Zifa were always going to be under pressure to ensure they make their constitution in line with the Fifa, Caf and laws of the land.
However, over a year after their election into office, the Zifa leadership have selected a committee of technocrats they believe will help them come up with new rules and regulations and a constitution that is compatible with the requirements of world football. Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze said yesterday they had identified a four-man constitutional review committee that will be commissioned by the association’s president Cuthbert Dube this week.
That committee includes lawyers Tinofara Hove, Cosmas Mukwesha, Tim Sangarwe and Tawengwa Hara with Mashingaidze appointed the ex-officio member.
“The committee should come up with a draft document in respect of the constitution and the rules and regulations for tabling at the extra-ordinary general meeting of the assembly set for the 26th November, 2011 in Harare.
“They have to make the constitution in line with submissions of the family of football, the SRC observations and the Fifa requirements. The regulations of 1996 should be in sync with the current Fifa
Code of Ethics and the Fifa disciplinary code.
“The Zifa constitution should embrace the dynamics that are obtaining with a case in point being match-fixing and illegal betting . . . our current statutes only talk of corruption because when they promulgated the scourge of match fixing had not hit this part of the world.
“Corruption is broad and our statutes need to be like Article 62 of the Fifa Code which also caters for such crimes like match-fixing in football.
“That committee will also look at how the operations of the Zifa Private Limited can be rationalised because that organ should really serve football.
“There are also 15 standing committees in Zifa and the main question has been, do we really need all those? Recently we had a problem with the Ethics standing committee wanting to be tasked with handling the Asiagate issue,” Mashingaidze said.
But, with Hove, Mukwesha, Sangarwe and Hara having gained football experience from working for either Zifa or the Premier Soccer League, expectations are high that the quartet will produce a document that will finally end the confusion that has dodged previous Zifa constitutions.
Hove and Sangarwe have served on various Zifa disciplinary boards while Mukwesha was a regular member of previous PSL disciplinary committees and Hara is a Njube Sundowns director who is currently serving on the top-flight league’s executive that is led by Twine Phiri. Mashingaidze said it was also imperative that the constitutional review committee dealt with the issue of the association’s emergency committee and the composition of the Zifa board.
“Emergency committee . . . what is it? What does it stand for and who should constitute that committee, all that needs to be enunciated. There is also need to review the composition of the Zifa board and their roles and find out how best duplication with the secretariat can be avoided.
“It must be noted that board members are not full time employees of the association and they cannot have the same roles and duties that are being carried out by the staff at the secretariat”.
Mashingaidze also said there were plans to make the constitutional committee a permanent structure among Zifa’s standing committees.
“Our terrain is ever-changing, we need to rationalise our operations so that whatever is outside our statutes is deemed unconstitutional is removed from our rules and regulations and the constitution itself.
“There is also need for that committee to look into the issue of Zifa levies which have nothing to do with the issuance of international transfer certificates. The Zifa levies which were instituted in 1996 were purely administrative.
“The judicial bodies of Zifa also need to be reviewed so that we do not have cases where executive boards sit as disciplinary committees which compromises the justice delivery system of our football”.
Mashingaidze said the status and eligibility of those who sit on the Zifa assembly would also come under scrutiny when Hive, Hara, Mukwesha and Sangarwe review the association’s constitution.
“We also have the problem of affiliates calling themselves associations within the association and operating as if they do not belong to the mother body,” Mashingaidze said.
Online Reporter