adminencouraged to secure their own premises and conduct their business independent from the association’s headquarters at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
Zifa have, in the last few months, been trying to turn over a new page in the way they administer the game following recommendations from Fifa on the need for better corporate governance by the local soccer mother body.
Zifa have beefed up their secretariat by appointing a chief operations officer, a financial director, a marketing manager and a communications manager.
They have also retrenched some employees offering them packages and are about to conclude the retrenchment exercise.
Zifa president Cuthbert Dube said, all the affiliates that were still using the association’s head office needed to be weaned off.
And yesterday, Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze revealed that nine out of 10 provinces now had offices from which to conduct their business.
“We are encouraging affiliates to open up offices or secure office space for them to be able to conduct their business professionally. In weaning off the affiliates they will enjoy autonomy.
“And we are glad that of the four regions, Central region have offices in Gweru, Eastern Region in Masvingo and Southern Region in Bulawayo while Northern Region are at the head office.
“The whole idea is to instill a business culture and when people come to Zifa headquarters they should smell business,” said Mashingaidze.
The Zifa chief executive said local football should move with the times and own assets.
“We have applied for land to build our head office which would be spacious with boardrooms, conference rooms and a library.
“The Zifa house was built in 1982 and by then we were the only one with offices but other associations have built better headquarters than us.
“And we can also do the same after securing land. Even PSL should have their own property and not continue paying costly rentals.
“We should own movable assets and the ideal dream over five years would be ownership of assets.
“Highlanders, Zimbabwe Saints and Motor Action boast of club houses and we encourage other clubs to have their own premises and also – in the future – enter into private partnerships to own stadiums,” said Mashingaidze.
Meanwhile, the Zifa Northern Region Division One league, the only region which was still attached to the head office admitted that they would have to look for new offices.
The league’s acting chairman Saidi Sangula said they are yet to receive the formal communication from Zifa.
“We cannot fail to find office space to rent. It is easy. We are still operating from the headquarters and it shouldn’t be a problem for us to move to our own offices,” said Sangula.
Online Reporter