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Eddie Chikamhi, Harare Bureau
ZIFA yesterday took one big step towards rationalising their legal statutes when they unveiled a six-member constitutional review committee led by prominent Harare lawyer Itayi Ndudzo.

The committee is made up four legal experts and two journalists.

Ndudzo, who has vast corporate and international legal work experience, will chair the committee that includes Chris Mutangadura, Shepherd Chamunorwa and Sibongile Ndlovu.

Journalists Yvonne Mangunda and Bengani Ncube are also part of the constitutional review team with Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze coming in as an ex-officio member.

Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa yesterday said the establishment of the committee was in line with the Association’s constitution.

The Harare property mogul said they are looking to bring sanity into football through strengthening their legal frameworks.

“Football needs sanity and that sanity is guaranteed through a strong statutory framework. Statutes govern our operations and general conduct.

“The Zifa constitution has evolved over the years and as a new leadership we want to see football made stronger through a strong constitution. A constitution should never be manipulated by individuals or subjected to the whims of individuals.

“The individual interests should never take precedence over the collective interests. The institution of football should have a foolproof constitution which makes football the ultimate winner.

“The Zifa statutes once sanitised could be one of the best statutes in Africa, according to Fifa, and hence our unveiling of the new Zifa Constitutional Review Committee.

“We expect the committee to interface with all constituencies of football in order for our statutes to be a true representation of the family of football’s interests,” said Chiyangwa.

The committee, which reports to the Zifa board, starts work immediately and has been given up to the end of this month to develop a road map for the next two years until March 2018.

The road map should include planning meetings, outreach visits, consultative meetings, presentations to the Zifa Executive Committee and surveys among other duties assigned to them.

The committee will also seek to re-align the Zifa constitution with the laws of the country and also with the CAF and Fifa statutes.