Zimbabweans attend one-year Fifa course

Lovemore Zigara in Gweru
FOUR Zimbabweans have enrolled for the one-year Fifa executive programme in sports management course at the Nelson Mandela Metroplitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Zifa Central Soccer League (CSL) assistant administrator Violet Jubane, former Zimbabwe Under-20 international Gerald Danda, former Highlanders player Sikhumbuzo Ndebele and Emmanuel Makuni, a teacher at Sanyati Baptist High School, are part of a class of 31 participants drawn from the Sadc region that enrolled for the course being held under the auspices of the International Centre for Sport Studies of Switzerland.

The course is split into four parts on a block release basis and the present class is set to graduate in August 2017.

Jubane said she decided to take up the course, as she has dreams of becoming a sports marketing guru.

“I realised there are very few ladies in sports activities, especially sports administration, and I would like to take it as an opportunity to encourage other young girls. The sports industry has a lot of opportunities and one day I want to be one of the most influential people in the Zimbabwean and African sport marketing arena,” said Jubane, who is a marketing degree holder.

Danda, a Master of Science Degree holder in Media and Society Studies from the Midlands State University, said he enrolled for the course as part of his quest to enhance and hone his sport management skills, which he said is glaringly lacking in most sporting disciplines in Zimbabwe.

“Sport is big business that can empower communities and it should be handled by capable individuals that respect its professional calling,” said Danda.

“After completing this programme, I intend to pursue the Fifa Master In Sport Humanities and Law offered by CIES in Switzerland. After that I would like to do high level scholarly studies, perhaps a PhD, taking a deeper introspection into sport-media cultural complex with a view to demystifying critical socio-economic and political factors that impinge on our sporting success as a country.”

Few Zimbabweans have done such a course and Caps United executive member Nhamo Tutisani and Solomon Mudege, a Fifa development officer for Africa based in Zurich, Switzerland, come to mind.