WHAT in the world is happening to football?

Fifa president Sepp Blatter and several major officials have been suspended and banned from all football activity for periods ranging from 90 days to six years.

Blatter was suspended alongside his equally powerful vice-president Michel Platini and secretary-general Jerome Valcke for various offences, including kickbacks and receiving irregular payments, plunging the world of football into turmoil.

The suspension of the three most powerful men in world football came just days after the most powerful men in Zimbabwean football also lost their jobs following dramatic events that culminated in the dissolution of the entire Zifa board last Saturday.

Perhaps borrowing from his mentor Blatter, Cuthbert Dube had also sought to cushion his own fall from grace by resigning on the eve of the crunch Zifa meeting, but staying on as the association’s boss until elections to choose his successor on December 5.

However, the Zifa councillors unanimously rejected his bid to remain in the game by revoking his mandate together with that of all his board members.

After numerous complaints over the management of Zifa and its mismanagement of funds, councillors finally took the bold decision to remove the entire lot, and they deserve a pat on the back for finally developing a backbone.

A countless number of decisions that were not in the best interest of the game were made during Dube’s tenure and the councillors had sheepishly turned a blind eye.

Just like Blatter, Dube had also created a clique that mainly hounded dissenters of the association to carve his path as the undisputed Zifa boss.

The problem though was that his clique of yes-men tainted the national game making bad decisions that impacted our various national teams.

Because a lot of time had been spent fighting personality battles instead of securing corporate support for the national game, national team call-ups became a nightmare and players were subjected to all forms of humiliation, including being locked out or locked inside lodges for non-payment and being denied meals.

As if the public humiliation wasn’t enough, Zifa would not pay the players and coaches, which further dented player morale in the run-up to crucial games.

Such scenes were repeated ahead of every national assignment, but the Zifa leaders constantly lied to the nation that all was under control and their problems were being exaggerated.

They even lied that a deal had been struck with Brazilian coach Valinhos to pay his outstanding dues and the deceit was only exposed when Zimbabwe was booted out of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Only then did some inside Zifa wake up to the reality of their folly and realised that we could no longer continue along this self-destructive path.

Although it was rather too late, the Zifa councillors must be congratulated for waking up to the reality that they were part of a rotting fish.

The removal of Dube and his men provides us with an opportune moment to sort out the administration of domestic football.

The men and women tasked with voting in the new Zifa board on December 5 ought to apply their minds and present the nation with sound administrators that possess the required football knowledge and ability to lure back corporate sponsorship to the national game.

We are sick and tired of the blame game some local football administrators comfortably resort to when things are not going well under their watch.

It’s amazing that when a club or organisation has really been woefully or even fatally negligent in its decision-making, finding others to blame, and then blaming them, gives them a substitute sensation for having solved a problem.

Anger and self-righteousness are exciting feelings, but sport administrators mustn’t become so hooked on excitement that they stop seeing more subtle shades of cause and effect.

These club bosses that blame others tend to overemphasise themselves while at the same time underemphasising the negative effects of their actions.

I understand that there’s an unavoidable romanticism surrounding certain football clubs that they’re just too big to be bad, and there’s too much history on their side to be criticised.

It’s an undeniable fact that big clubs also face unprecedented challenges. The problem, however, has been looking for others to blame from outside the club’s structures.

Heaping blame on the media for your problems is certainly a demonstration of lack of unity of purpose within an administration in finding solutions to the woes they find themselves in.

What is evident is the effects of the problems, such as consistent poor performances on match day and an unfamiliarly depressing low position on the standings.

The decline of a club’s brand is driven by the aberrant behaviours of those in leadership positions, just as a fish rots from the head down. An honest and sober reflection of themselves could help stop the stench.

Yes, clubs have their own way of doing things, but if those laid down procedures do not help foster a winning culture, then they must certainly be revised.

For how long must people continue evoking processes that are not working? Those processes might have worked in the past, but if they clearly no longer achieve required results, why stick to failure?

Failure to constantly review processes to suit the obtaining conditions has been the major cause of the demise of most organisations.

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