adminbring to finality the scam that blighted the domestic game for much of this season.
The unveiling of the committee will also come just in time for the Zifa board’s special board meeting scheduled for next Friday in Harare.
After enduring a series of delays Zifa have found themselves under pressure to close the Asiagate chapter and move on with their core business of administering and developing the game as well as plan ahead for the future of the national teams.
The Asiagate scandal rocked the country’s biggest sport when it emerged that the Warriors were being paid to fix the outcome of their matches on their controversial tours to Asian countries between 2007 and 2009.
Zifa have since completed their probe into the trips and taken their findings to Fifa, the Confederation of Africa Football and the Sport and Recreation Commission but all these bodies, observing the tenets that govern football, have acknowledged the Asiagate report but all made it clear that the mandate to bring the matter to finality lay with the association.
It is against this background that Zifa would want the committee that will be named on Monday to immediately get down to work and recommend the sanctions to be meted on those found guilty.
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Zifa president Cuthbert Dube who, according to communications manager Nicky Dhlamini, is expected to commission the committee before addressing a press conference revealed that he had secured the signatures of virtually all the members who will deliberate on the final phase of the Asiagate probe.
The Zifa president said he had been awaiting to get the nod from the man they had targeted to chair the committee before making public the names of the entire committee.
Dube also insisted that it was his wish to ensure that, “this Asiagate episode is put behind us”.
“We have managed to get the services of two eminent people, a prominent lawyer and we have also received acceptance from a prominent figure who will act as the prosecutor as well as a retired police commissioner.
“All the retired judges had been heavily committed and that is why we were still hunting but yes it is our wish to see that this whole Asiagate saga is over and done with.
“Our first objective when we came into power was to put the Zifa house in order and when I stand for the second term, which I must state now that I will, the first objective will be to put Zimbabwe football on the map.
“It is our sincere hope that after Asiagate we can efficiently run Zifa. We will fast track to ensure that the committee does its job and that Asiagate is behind us so we are saying let the experts do their job and we don’t want any undue influence on this independent committee,” Dube said. There had been speculation that retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay had been named the committee’s chairman but Dube dismissed that assertion as a mere rumour
When appointed, the committee is expected to afford those implicated in the Asiagate report that was compiled by the Ndumiso Gumede probe team, an opportunity to clear themselves.
The Asiagate report and the issue of the independent committee that is expected to have been in place by then, is also part of the agenda items on the Zifa board special meeting, which will also debate on Zimbabwe’s bid to host the 2012 African Women’s Championships.
Zifa are also expected to review the Warriors failed 2012 African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with the board expected to take serious stock of the role they played in contributing to the senior team’s failure.
Zimbabwe finished third with eight points in a Group A that was won by Mali after the Eagles just piped Cape Verde for the sole ticket to the Nations Cup that will be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Apart from causing confusion in the appointment of coaches prior to the home game between the Warriors and Cape Verde, the Zifa board was also found wanting in terms of proper planning for the senior team’s games especially for the away games where Dube ended up bailing association to ensure Norman Mapeza’s men flew out for their assignments.
Ironically, some of his critics including those from within the board have accused Dube of “some dictatorial tendencies” especially for the manner he has stuck with Mapeza but the Zifa president argued that he was merely “leading Zifa and not ruling the association”.
“I am surprised at being labelled a dictator but where I see that we are not going anywhere I must lead and there is a difference between ruling and leading. As a strategist I must know where there are red lights flashing and in most cases leaders that are not visionary find their institutions crumbling.
“With particular reference to Zifa, I believe that leaders must get into office to assist and not go into the association’s coffers and that is why I have never received any board fees from my time as Eastern Region chairman up to now.
“I also wonder why some people only criticise when I chip in with decisions but there is a deafening silence when I chip with funding and help our national teams and make some sacrifices, I really wonder,” Dube said.
But it is the Asiagate chapter that Dube admits needs to be out to bed and help the domestic game focus on its future, which looks bright if the huge potential and the talent in our players is anything to go by.
On Monday, Zifa will take a major step into ending all the speculation that had surrounded the final episode of the Asiagate scam.
Online Reporter