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Sports Reporter
THE Bulawayo Labour Court yesterday referred the case pitting Zifa and its education officer (EO) Brian Moyo over outstanding allowances totalling $18,000 to arbitration after the football governing body again failed to turn up for a hearing for the second time inside a week. Continental governing football body CAF have been consistently depositing $3,000 every six months into Zifa’s account since Moyo was engaged as EO three years ago, and the cash has since accrued to $18,000.

As an EO, Moyo was meant to act as a football development manager, information provider and coordinator of courses or seminars for all matters related to football development.

Moyo took his case to the Labour Court after receiving numerous unfavourable responses from Zifa.

Zifa absconded the first court hearing in Bulawayo last Thursday and the case was postponed to yesterday, but the football motherbody, which is sinking in about $6 million debt, again failed to attend.

Moyo’s representatives, the Footballers’ Union of Zimbabwe (FUZ), said they are going to prepare necessary documentation that they would forward to the arbitrator.

“What we’re doing is preparing a statement of a list of monies that our client is owed by Zifa, which we’ll submit to the arbitrator,” said FUZ secretary-general Paul Gundani.

He defended FUZ’s decision to represent Moyo. “FUZ is a union for football people and we see nothing amiss about offering our services to Moyo.

He is our member and it’s only fair that Zifa give him his dues because CAF has been constantly depositing the money into their account, but they’ve failed to forward it to Moyo,” Gundani said.

This is not the first time Zifa has been involved in a labour related dispute. Last year, former Zifa communications manager Nicky Dhlamini-Moyo was awarded $88,000 by an arbitrator for unfair dismissal.

She went on to attach Zifa’s property, which included a computer installed with the Fifa Transfer Management System (TMS) software.

This TMS software allows the association to collate all the information when clubs register their players during the transfer window period and is linked with all the transfers that occur around the world.

The national association also had computers, printers, desks, telephone headsets and some of the football kit used by the various national teams attached, as Dhlamini-Moyo sought to recover her dues.