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CUTHBERT Elkanah Dube’s reign at the helm of Zifa is likely to come to an end today, thanks to the Zifa councillors who have gathered courage to stop him. There was lot of optimism in 2010 when Dube was voted to the position of Zifa chairman but his reign has brought gloom than joy. He promised to clean Zifa’s battered image, attract corporate support by sticking to corporate governance facets, but he has done the opposite.

Dube’s failure to reign in on the association’s general-secretary, Jonathan Mashingaidze has caused his downfall. The final blow to Dube’s stay at Zifa was last month’s fraudulent act of publishing doctored financial statements for the Zimbabwe-Guinea 2017 Afcon qualifier.

It emerged that five board members led by Fungai Chihuri paid themselves about $2,800 as board allowances and a further $1,200 as travel and subsistence allowances. Bulawayo based board member Tawengwa Hara challenged the finance committee to account for the money as he only received $400 as travel and subsistence allowances.

A Zifa accountant told our sister paper The Sunday Mail that the figures from the Warriors-Guinea game were doctored by Mashingaidze and the question is, how many times has the Zifa chief executive officer committed such fraudulent acts?

It also makes one wonder if the oft-stated $6 million debt that Zifa has is real.

It will not be a surprise to unearth more financial mismanagement in Zifa’s books should a forensic audit be conducted.

Besides sleeping on duty and allowing Mashingaidze to run the show and account only to himself, Dube’s biggest blunder was to get us banned from the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Zimbabwe will be spectators when the entire universe starts Fifa World Cup qualifiers after being left out because of the $81,000 debt owed to former national team coach José Claudinei Georgini, popularly known as Valinhos.

Initially the debt owed to the coach stood at $67,000, but has ballooned to $81,000 due to legal costs. Dube and Mashingaidze lied to the nation, took the football-loving nation for granted by making public declarations that Zifa had the Valinhos matter covered and that we were going to participate in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers yet they did nothing to save us.

Most board members were not aware of the Valinhos case as Dube preferred to deal with Mashingaidze instead of involving others in coming up with a possible solution. That Valinhos case was the opportune time for Dube to fire Mashingaidze for incompetence but alas, the Zifa boss decided to keep his crony.

What hold does Mashingaidze have over Dube which has made the him believe in the Mashingaidze above his board members? Dube has stood firm in support of ever-blundering Mashingaidze, who stands accused of dividing the Zifa board so that he gets closer to the president.

Even when Mashingaidze continued to receive Caf grants of $3,000 every six months meant for the education officer Brian Moyo, Dube did not acte. Zifa now owes Moyo at least $18,000.

Then there is an issue of cases that Zifa lost because of bad decisions made by Mashingaidze yet Dube continued to turn a blind eye.

Some of the former Zifa employees who have successfully sued the embattled association are Jonathan Musavengana, Nelson Matongorere, Harry Taruva and Nicky Dhlamini-Moyo.

Well, today is a big day for Zimbabwean football and thanks to Fifa who declined to be coerced into cancelling of today’s Indaba after Mashingaidze had written to the world mother body saying Zifa has no money to hold the meeting.

Councillors’ commitment to fund themselves to the meeting speaks volumes about their desire to save our football which is in a dire state.

I would like to believe that it is for this reason that Fifa sent three representatives to witness the meeting.

Caf also sent an observer.

Even the Minister of Sports and Recreation Makhosini Hlongwane is expected to attend the meeting that should seal the fate of the association’s leadership.

After Dube and his board members have been kicked out, councillors who have realised that running football is in their hands will install an interim committee to lead them before holding elections.

The interim committee is expected to immediately suspend Mashingaidze to pave way for a forensic audit of the Zifa books.

Restoration of relations with key partners like Fifa, Caf and the corporate world will be key for the new Zifa ad hoc committee.

It might have taken a while for the councillors to gather courage but they should be commended for kicking Dube out of Zifa.

I believe Zimbabweans are eagerly waiting for a new life without Dube and his cronies who deserve to be termed as the worst local football has ever had.