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to work closely with the world football controlling body to unravel the puzzle surrounding the Warriors’ controversial trips to the Far East.
Fifa’s Anti-Corruption unit indicated that they will next week question Football Association of Malaysia officials as part of a global match-fixing investigation that also sucked in Premiership outfit Monomotapa.
Zifa vice-president, Ndumiso Gumede, said yesterday they were excited that Fifa were taking a leading role and injecting US$28 million to fund a dedicated Anti-Corruption Unit, to be based in Singapore, to fight mach-fixing.
Interpol secretary-general Ron Noble told Fifa in Zurich that Asia was a “hot-bed of betting and match-fixing”.
British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, said on Monday Fifa had evidence that match-fixing cartels even resorted to murder, and there have been a number of deaths, to force their agenda.
Gumede heads a Zifa team investigating allegations that the Warriors were paid to throw their games on their trips to such Asian countries as Malaysia, China, Syria, Singapore and Yemen.
The other members of the team are Zifa board member competitions Benedict Moyo, Elliot Kasu and Fungai Chihuri.
Gumede said his committee had virtually completed their second and final report but they had been hamstrung by lack of financial resources, which had stalled their bid to travel to Malaysia or Singapore, to secure conclusive evidence on the senior team’s games.
The Gumede team also took their investigations to the Democratic Republic of Congo where they interviewed some of the players who are based there as well as Malawian football consultant Felix Sapao.
“We are on the verge of handing over our report to the Zifa board. In fact, if it was not because of Benjamin Moyo’s death (Benedict Moyo’s young brother and former FC Platinum coach) we should have been done by now,” Gumede said.
But it is the decision by Fifa to send a crack team to Malaysia which Gumede said has given them a lot of optimism that they could find answers to some of their leads they had been pursuing.
“When you see an organisation like Fifa giving such a huge amount to fight corruption, it shows how serious they are about the issue.
“There is a possibility that we may exchange notes with Fifa now that they are moving into Malaysia.
“Our constraints were that we did not have funds but it would be prudent for us, funds permitting, to go to Malaysia or Singapore because there are no records at Zifa or the Sports Commission on how those trips came about.
“There is nothing to show how the Warriors were invited and whether it was done at association to association level or whether all the matches were arranged by agents and at what cost.
“But we would still want to know how the associations then came in and this is what we need to find out from Malaysia or Singapore,” Gumede said.
The Zifa vice-president said they would also be happy if Fifa were to give them financial assistance to conclude the external part of their probe.
Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke told the BBC on the sidelines of a Caf Congress in Sudan in February that the world body was also keenly following the developments in Asiagate.
The Fifa secretary-general said players caught up in the match-fixing scam, who had willingly accepted money to influence the outcome of matches, should not be allowed to play the game.
Gumede, however, said another committee would be set up which would provide a platform for those players implicated to exonerate themselves as his committee was only mandated with investigating and coming up with a report.
“If Fifa make funds available to assist in our probe it would be nice to help us conclude some unanswered questions because really there is no paper trail at Zifa House.
“Despite all those trips our erstwhile executives did not leave any files either at the office or at SRC and that made our job difficult”.
Gumede also revealed that they had sought the assistance of the Zimbabwe Republic Police in their investigations and had submitted a report to the law enforcement agents.
“We had referred our case to ZRP to assist us through Interpol because we handed over a portion of our findings to them”.
It also emerged that that the ZRP had yesterday questioned the Dynamos trio of goalkeeper Washington Arubi and defenders David Kutyauripo and Guthrie Zhokinyi over the Warriors trips to Asia.
The DeMbare players were members of the Warriors squad that travelled on the controversial trip to Malaysia in December 2009 that torched the Zifa probe.
The ZRP are also understood to have questioned more players shortly before the Warriors trip to Mali for a 2012 African Cup of Nations qualifier.
Zifa’s initial report led to the sacking of chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya and the association’s programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana who were accused of being at the heart of the Warriors’ trips.
Fifa also indicated that their Anti-Corruption Unit would look at 300 matches around the world.
The matches could include the July 2009 tour of Malaysia by Monomotapa where the 2008 Premiership champions masqueraded as the Warriors and played two matches against the hosts.
The matches were later stripped of their “A” international status following revelations that Monoz were in fact a club side and not the Zimbabwe national team.
Fifa security chief Chris Eaton is expected in Malaysia next week and FAM officials claim the Monoz trip to Malaysia would be one of the matches the team will look into.
FAM insisted they had been “misled” by Zifa into believing that the Harare club were indeed the Warriors.
Gumede also said they would have wanted to travel to Finland when they heard that Singapore national Wilson Raj Perumal had been arrested.
The Zifa investigators believe that Perumal was the key figure in their suspicions that that the Warriors were a part of a betting and match fixing syndicate.
Perumal is languishing in jail in Finland awaiting trial on a number of cases involving match-fixing and immigration violations where he allegedly entered the country under false identity.
The 45-year-old Perumal was also fingered by Sapao for orchestrating the match-fixing scandals in a number of countries.
Sapao also claimed in an interview with the Zifa probe team that Perumal had also approached him with a view to getting the Flames of Malawi involved in the match-fixing scam.