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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Highlanders chief executive officer will soon stop being a “glorified clerk” after a committee assigned to look into a proposed constitutional amendment process recommended that the CEO be given the powers to oversee the function of the football club  in line with Fifa requirements.

The changes, if implemented, will see the current CEO Ronald Moyo released from the shackles that currently see him sharing power with the club secretary.

In football the CEO reports to a chairperson and board of directors.

The chairperson works in tandem with the board in making some of the crucial decisions regarding the functioning of the club.

However, the most important role in a football club is that of CEO.

The CEO is the one who oversees the functioning of the organisation, communicating with people from various departments.

In a football club, one of the chief activities of the CEO is negotiating contracts and signing new players.

The constitutional amendment proposal meant to make Highlanders compliant with Fifa Club Licensing and improve Bosso’s administration, was submitted by club member Innocent Mikazhu ahead of the annual general meeting held at the beginning of the year.

Bosso set up a committee led by board member Nicholas Nyathi to look into the constitutional amendment process.

Nyathi gave a snippet of some of the proposed amendments, which include avoiding the duplication of duties that are presently vague and leave the CEO with no defined role.

Should members agree to the changes, the CEO will have his responsibilities spelt out as required by Fifa on how to run the club, making him a club signatory and he will be responsible for all the club’s correspondence that are presently done by the secretary.

The amended constitution will also see the abolishing of the secretary, treasurer and committee member’s titles as well as their roles.

“Looking into aligning the amendments with Fifa/Caf Club Licensing is that the executive chairman and vice-chairperson won’t change.

But the treasurer will change to executive member responsible for finance and will chair meetings relating to finance.

The secretary will change to an executive member responsible for administration and marketing, while a committee member is going to be a board member responsible for technical and development.

“Looking into the CEO, responsibilities will be as required by Fifa/Caf on how to run a club.

The CEO will have power to sign, call meetings such as  this one (EGM and the annual general meeting), set their agenda, unlike now which is  being done by the secretary.

“This is just a snippet of the work being done in amending the constitution,” said Nyathi.

Mikazhu suggested that Article 7.3 scraps the titles of secretary, treasurer and committee member, and replace them with committee member responsible for administration and marketing, committee member responsible for finance and committee member responsible for technical development respectively.

He proposed that the committee member responsible for administration and marketing chairs the administration and marketing standing committee, oversees the welfare of club employees, oversees implementation of the club’s marketing plan in liaison with the chief executive officer and performs all such duties as delegated by the chairperson.

Club correspondence, recording of minutes, keeping of player records, which includes renewal of contracts and player registrations as spelt out by the present constitution, must be the CEO’s responsibilities.

Recently, Highlanders had to do fire-fighting following a letter signed by secretary Morgan Dube asking for donations to purchase a laptop, with some saying he was assuming the duties of Moyo who has been reduced to a “administrative clerk”.

But according to the present club constitution, Dube was right to sign the letter as the guiding document states that the secretary is in charge of all club correspondence.
In Mikazhu’s proposal, the committee member responsible for finance duties may include heading the finance committee, monitoring financial management and advising the executive on financial matters and asset management.

If the proposed amendments sail through, duties of the member for finance will also include analysing the club’s budget and financial statements prepared by the CEO and submitting them to the executive for approval.

The committee member responsible for technical development would oversee basic aspects of football training and technical development, chair the technical and development committee and oversee implementation of the club’s youth development programmes.

The amendments are likely to go through at next year’s annual general meeting after Nyathi’s team completes crafting changes into a proper legal document.

Another key item to note is that an ordinary or life member attached to a certain club will not be allowed to participate in decision making processes of Highlanders such as voting, even though he or she retains membership status.

— @ZililoR