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Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa

Dingilizwe Ntuli, Sports Editor
FOOTBALL under past Zifa administrations was bad and there’s little evidence that it will improve under the current administration. The mess in which Zifa finds itself in right now is so great that the combative stance it has taken feels like the executive committee is hellbent on dynamiting the association’s future.

Yesterday morning, football fans woke up to the shock suspensions of Highlanders and Premier Soccer League chairman Peter Dube, and Highlanders’ chief executive officer Ndumiso Gumede for alleged football misdemeanours.

By sunset, the Bosso duo had been joined by Bulawayo City FC chairman Jerry Sibanda and coach Philani Ncube in Zifa’s suspension quest for an alleged attempt to manipulate the outcome of a league game against Border Strikers at Dulivhadzimu Stadium on August 3.

We were told that Gumede peddled falsehoods about a legitimate football leadership and also sought to unseat a constitutionally elected Zifa executive committee. The statement by Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa further alleged Gumede wanted to destabilise “a smooth football administration” by establishing a bogus parallel structure that operated as the “Zifa Working Committee” to effect a coup against his administration.

This is laughable if not sad; Gumede establishing a parallel committee to oust Zifa? The Zifa executive is giving too much credit to Gumede. The man had too much on his plate at his debt-ridden Bosso and Zifa must be honest with us about its true reasons for sanctioning him.

We are convinced the Zifa executive committee compromising Chiyangwa, vice-president Omega Sibanda, Felton Kamambo, Piraishe Mabhena and Philemon Machana, who met on Sunday to effect the suspensions, know the founders and members of the “Zifa Working Committee” and have clearly not chosen to take them head on because they are probably not standing in their path.

Dube, we are told, incited PSL clubs to denounce a Zifa resolution on the promotional play-offs and that he also interrupted formal proceedings during the association’s congress by addressing delegates without requisite permission from the chair.

If Dube was charged for such trivialities, how did delegates that triggered the chaos by seeking to alter a 2015 resolution to relegate two teams from the PSL and promote two following promotional play-offs survive the sanctions? Calling for the relegation of four teams and promotion of four is what brought that Zifa Congress into disrepute.

Could Dube’s suspension be meant to weaken and eventually collapse the PSL? By the look of things, it seems the next person to face a Zifa suspension is PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele. There have been whispers within Zifa corridors that Ndebele wields too much power that needs to be neutralised for Zifa to complete a total takeover of the PSL by this December. Yes, whispers inside Zifa suggest that the national association wants to take over the PSL by December 2016, hence the suspension of Dube as a prelude to the removal of Ndebele, which will justify a takeover since the PSL doesn’t have an elected executive committee. So watch out Ndebele, the Zifa executive committee guillotine is aiming for your neck.

We are concerned by the seeming pursuit of hate and vindictiveness coupled with the Wild West stance the association has taken instead of trying to extricate itself from this self-made mess in an honest and honourable manner.

At this rate, our football will not develop until administrators are reined in and held accountable for their destructive management style.

We are more concerned about the aftermath than the suspensions themselves because plans for that are equally threadbare. Terrible administrative mistakes have made a mockery of our football over the years and until these are rectified, we will continue to go nowhere slowly, as potential sponsors frown at such turmoil being associated with their brands.