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Ricky Zililo
THE new Zifa administration led by business mogul Phillip Chiyangwa must swallow its pride and follow appropriate steps in correcting the confusion that they have created in the domestic game.

On June 7, Chronicle Sport reported that the football leadership had plunged itself into a seemingly intractable quagmire over the rushed decision to announce the dissolution of Zifa and formation of the National Football Association of Zimbabwe (Nafaz) without following proper legal channels.

The story written by our Sports Editor Dingilizwe Ntuli drew criticism from sectors who were for the formation of Nafaz who felt that this publication had something against Chiyangwa and his executive.

What Chronicle Sport was simply doing was to point out the dangers that the move posed to our football.

Last week we were vindicated when the Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) and the Government through the Sports and Recreation Ministry announced that the dissolution process wasn’t done properly.

Chiyangwa and his buddies accepted that they made an error and now want to do the process in a proper way.

Maybe the SRC is also to blame for lack of decisiveness because they knew from the beginning that the dissolution process was flawed but first gave hope that they were going to register the new association. SRC should have said no from the beginning instead of fueling confusion.

The Chiyangwa-led executive, elected into office on December 5, 2015, promised to reinvent Zimbabwean football through sound and transparent management, but in just six months, they have left the future of the national game in doubt.

When Chiyangwa’s board came in they were meant to finish off the Cuthbert Dube term which comes to an end in 2018 and knew that they were inheriting a heavy debt.

The initial liquidation had Fifa’s approval but Zifa didn’t engage stakeholders and even the June 4 meeting they called had many items on the agenda which was wrong. Let me take you back to last year when the Zifa councillors wanted to fire Dube and his executive, if you recall, Fifa advised the assembly that they had to give a 60-day notice and only then did the revocation succeed.

There are a lot of risks that the blundering Zifa has created.

The consequences of the court ruling in favour of dissolution may mean that there will be no football in the country because the people in office would have failed.

It’s a tricky situation that the country’s football finds itself in because in the event that Chiyangwa and company are declared not fit to lead football following dissolution Fifa and SRC appoints an interim committee, Fifa may see that as interference and we may as well kiss Afcon 2017 goodbye.

The solution to all these problems may require government to take over Zifa’s debt because in the process of trying to get things done properly, some creditors may be bitter that they could have lost all their dues.

Most creditors are also armed with writs of execution, which makes it difficult to negotiate with them.

Fifa has said they will not be giving Zimbabwe the football grants amounting to $500,000 a year because they fear that it will be like throwing money into a deep hole.

In my view, the steps Zifa needs to take is to address the issue of employees whom they had fired when the name changed, whose relationship has irretrievably broken down, then meet the creditors after which they call a proper meeting.