Online Reporter
Eddie Chikamhi
Zimpapers Sports Hub
AMBITIOUS ZIFA are not yet ready to take their feet off the pedal in the quest to transform domestic football.
The association, whose members met for their first Ordinary Congress since a spate of elections reconstituted the assembly, revealed that they have tripled their budget from US$6 million to about US$17 million in the coming financial year.
The move is aimed at ramping up ZIFA operations and spearheading football development initiatives across the country and in all the game’s facets.
The budget received the thumbs up from the delegates at the Congress in Harare yesterday.
The money will be used to finance various development programmes as well as sustaining the national teams to get Zimbabwe back at the top of their game.
Delegates at yesterday’s meeting were unanimous that the congress reaffirmed ZIFA’s commitment to professionalism, accountability and service to its members.
The association’s president Nqobile Magwizi, who chaired the proceedings, told journalists that the expenditure speaks to the big dreams the association has in their football development blueprint.
He said the new ZIFA leadership, which was elected to office last year taking over from the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee, have in the past few months been working round the clock to stabilise the ship by setting up governance structures, restoring stakeholder confidence and laying the foundations for the development projects.
“We realised that year one was a very difficult year because we needed to stabilise the ship,” said Magwizi.
This indaba was the first for the new ZIFA Congress, whose mandate is to spearhead the resuscitation of domestic football in the wake of the lifting of the FIFA suspension of the association, which stalled the game between February 2022 and July 2023.
“We were coming out of normalisation and there was a lot of doubt in what this executive committee could do to football.
“It was therefore important to stabilise the place from where we are working from, stabilise the football environment so that there is belief, there is confidence amongst stakeholders and that’s pretty much most of the work we did in the year 2025.
“We believe we have managed to bring the association to a place of stability. Now the work to deliver begins. The work we were doing in 2025, yes, it has been recognised, but true delivery must start now,” Magwizi said.
He added that a new budget was approved at the indaba, with a significant increase to cater for the various football initiatives.
“The budget that has been presented, moving from US$6 million to about US$17million, because of the programmes that this exco together with congress has passed.
“So, it means there will be a lot of activities, from your Munhumutapa Cup, your junior football development programmes and activities that will see our various national teams working and playing football with various opponents.
“We are also looking at a situation where every national team from the juniors is going to have a coach and a technical team that will support it. No more knee-jerk reactions as we go to the future.
“That is the commitment that has been given by the exco and the assembly. As we go forward, we must be counted as a serious football nation, working together, supporting each other, that even the world can see that things are changing,” said Magwizi.
The indaba came just as ZIFA had conducted the draws for the legacy Munhumutapa Challenge Cup which kicks off in the lower tiers of football across the country today.
More than 1 000 teams are expected to take participate in the US$5 million per year tournament.
Magwizi also revealed the association has broadened their revenue streams through commercialisation and aggressive marketing.
“Money comes from different places. But one of the things that I would want to speak to is that we were speaking about which is a strategic focus when we started as a leadership.
“One of them was strengthening of the institution.
“The second one was the issue of commercialisation, building partnerships, commercialisation. And then, of course, making sure that we develop football better.
“So, with better relations you are able to create better partnerships. Better partnerships will allow us to have people like Ecobank coming on board to help.
“Better partnerships will allow us to have more cohesive engagements with FIFA and CAF because there is money we can apply for, and we have to tick the boxes so that meet the requirements of those funds.
“So, you have partnerships such as FIFA and CAF. You have sponsors that can come on board such as Ecobank in this instance, you have BetterBrands coming on board.
“Right now, we are looking to take the national team for boys to the UK (for the Unity Cup 2026, a four-nation tournament in London from May 26-30).
“The commercial department has already started speaking to various partners to say we have this assignment, come on board on this.
“But this whole ecosystem does not work in the absence of the other.
“So, you need to develop the correct relationships where your partners and stakeholders have confidence in what you are doing.
“When they are confident, they are willing to commit US$300 000 to say, we are going to supply you with the air-tickets.
“We are going to release an amount towards this because you have made the required four friendly matches. For your information, if you play four friendly matches in a year with the national team outside the regular or part of the general competitions for CAF or for FIFA, it allows us to claim additional funding.
“So, this is where all the funding will be coming from.
“In summary, it’s a combination of the relations that it creates amongst those stakeholders, even amongst you the media because you are telling the story. The story you tell about ZIFA influences someone to come and support ZIFA,” said Magwizi.
ZIFA also presented to the Congress two luxury buses purchased using the FIFA Forward funds.
At the same time, the association is also focusing on long-term infrastructure development for grassroots development.
“We are working with central and local government to secure land for modern facilities. Through FIFA Forward, the construction of FIFA Arenas at Chitsere and Mzilikazi Primary Schools is already underway. These are important steps, and they signal the direction we are taking,” said Magwizi.
