adminwhile before they can have representation on the regional body’s executive committee.
Zifa had been hoping to nominate a candidate to replace former association president Wellington Nyatanga on the committee whose elections were held on Friday.
Former Seychelles Football Association boss Suketu Patel was retained unopposed after South African Football Association vice-president Danny Jordaan withdrew in dramatic fashion amid indications that he was facing humiliation in the vote.
Apart from Nyatanga, the rest of Patel’s executive was retained with the former Zifa president being replaced by Botswana’s David Fani.
Cosafa vice-president Salemane Phafane from Lesotho stood unopposed for re-election to his role.
The other members elected to the Cosafa executive are Walter Nyamilandu Manda (Malawi), John Muinjo (Namibia), Timothy Shongwe (Swaziland) and Faizel Sidaet of Mozambique). This means Fani is the only new recruit, having taken over from Nyatanga.
However, it emerged that both Cosafa and Zifa were surprised that Zimbabwe had not submitted a nomination for the executive committee in time for the regional body’s November 8 deadline.
Zifa board member finance Elliot Kasu, who attended the Cosafa AGM in the company of the association’s president Cuthbert Dube and board member competitions Benedict Moyo, said yesterday they had realised after seeking clarification from Cosafa that there had been a serious breakdown in communication over the matter between the two parties.
Kasu, flanked by Moyo, said they were still baffled by their failure as a board to receive communication from Cosafa.
“Zimbabwe did not receive the nomination papers but Cosafa are insisting that they did send the nomination papers and yet as a board we did not see them. So something happened between the Cosafa offices and the Zifa offices.
“But we believe that with the confidence shown by Cosafa and even Fifa in this board, we should have filled that position. We even had Ben Moyo being appointed onto the technical committee. It is now our intention to ensure we submit names for the Cosafa sub-committees which will be constituted in January and we will also try to make our way into the Caf committees.
“It must also be understood that even though he had left Zifa, Nyatanga could not immediately terminate his position as a Cosafa executive member before the end of his tenure,” Kasu said.
Kasu also revealed that his board had also earlier written to Caf and Cosafa over Nyatanga’s status on the two bodies following their publication of the Asiagate report.
Nyatanga was Zifa president at the time of the Warriors’ controversial trips to Asia where they were allegedly paid to lose their matches.
“Yes, as Zifa we had written to Caf and Cosafa seeking clarification on his (Nyatanga’s) standing in view of the fact that he had also been implicated in the Asiagate report.
“The same query was raised by South Africa who indicated that Cosafa would need to clarify with them on the appointments they make in terms of their standing with member associations.
“As Zifa delegates to Cosafa we also had to seek clarification from the Cosafa president and other executive committee members who were here for the congress,” Kasu said.
Meanwhile, Safa, probably worried about the backlash from fellow Cosafa members sought to play down the fissures caused by Jordaan’s dramatic withdrawal and claimed their vice-president had not ducked the possibility of humiliation at the hands of Patel.
According to reports from South Africa, Safa said on Saturday that contrary to media reports, it withdrew Jordaan’s candidature from the elections for the presidency of Cosafa on Friday.
“Recent newspaper articles have speculated that this was done to ‘avoid embarrassment’ and some have even stated that Dr Jordaan faced a ‘humiliating defeat’,”Safa said in a statement.
“It was clear to us going into the election that it would be a very tight race.”
Safa claimed that of the 14 votes, South Africa was assured of six votes, with another four countries giving verbal commitments to Jordaan.
“We were not, however, completely assured of these votes,” it said.
“During the proceedings leading to elections, there were some members that expressed gratuitously hostile and aggressive attitudes against South Africa.”
The South African soccer body said it was on this basis that the South African delegation decided that even if elected, Jordaan would face a divided Cosafa. Safa said the nature of the changes Jordaan wanted to bring about in the organisation would have required a strong mandate from the electorate and a narrow margin of victory would have made it difficult.
“In the interests of unity, Safa decided to withdraw its candidate from the race, but at the same time expressed concerns about the process and some of the attitudes demonstrated by a minority of two, Safa said.
“While we remain committed to building a strong regional caucus within Southern and Eastern Africa, we cannot and will not allow our leadership to be treated in a dismissive manner,” said Safa president Kirsten Nematandani.
“We value and appreciate the significant international leadership that South Africa has exerted in international football. I also want to put it on record that statements flying around that we want to pull out of Cosafa have been taken out of context. All we said was that we are considering our participation to reach out on other continental regions like Cecafa and Wafu as Cosafa has only one age group tournament. Otherwise, how do we solidify Cosafa by pulling out?” Nematandani said.
Online Reporter