adminEddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
AS Zimbabwean football waits anxiously for FIFA’s verdict on ZIFA’s continued suspension from the international football family, the world football governing body have given the biggest hint the country should expect positive news in the coming days.
Although the strong FIFA delegation that was in the country last week has not pre-empted the reason for the visit nor the findings from engagements with local sports authorities, who included Minister Kirsty Coventry and the Sports and Recreation Commission, a member of the delegation FIFA director Member Associations Africa Gelson Fernandes yesterday twitted a cryptic message pointing to progress made on Zimbabwe’s issue.
The FIFA delegation also visited Namibia where there is a Normalisation Committee in place to try and put the Namibian football administration back on track after a series of challenges in the game’s administration.
But Zimbabwe’s problems are more complex as the country has been out in the cold for the last 17 months, with no headway made in the resolution of the sticking issues.
Of late FIFA have shown strong commitment and twice dispatched delegations in the last three months to get things working again in Zimbabwe.
The world football governing body is expected to make a major announcement on the fate of Zimbabwean football this week.
Fernandes said Zimbabwe and Namibia deserved “full attention” of FIFA, while reaffirming the commitment and desire “for the ball to roll” again.
“A week of intense work in two countries that deserve our full attention. Zimbabwe and Namibia. Development is FIFA’s priority.
“We must ensure that this can be achieved in the right conditions everywhere, and there is a clear desire for the ball to roll,” twitted Fernandes.
FIFA, who have been working closely with CAF and COSAFA in their engagement with the SRC, are set to announce the end of Zimbabwe’s one-and-a-half-years’ suspension from international football.
The world football governing body is also set to unveil a Normalisation Committee that will oversee ZIFA reforms and prepare the ground for elections at the troubled association.
Fernandes, FIFA head of development programmes in Africa Solomon Mudege, and COSAFA and Angola Football Association president Artur de Almeida e Silva were in Harare last week for another series of meetings with Zimbabwe officials.
CAF have provisionally included Zimbabwe in their 2026 World Cup African Zone qualifying draw scheduled for Cotonou, Benin, on Wednesday.
The Warriors will be in Pot 4 when the draw is done and will be in the same lot with Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Malawi and Libya. The World Cup qualifiers are set to begin in November.
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