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Dingilizwe Ntuli, Sports Editor
THERE is now undoubtedly a crisis of leadership at Zifa and the current administration is the curse of the national association.

Zimbabwean football is clearly in a mess, and it’s a mess made by the entire Zifa executive committee.

There has been a massive decline in the local game’s standards under Zifa president Felton Kamambo’s watch and it’s quite disturbing that there haven’t been any ramifications for failure and occasional embarrassment caused to the nation.

It has been a fantastic achievement for Kamambo to make his way up the ladder to the helm of Zimbabwean football, but that seems to be his most important and only accomplishment.

It’s alarming that our football continues to sink to unbelievable levels despite millions of dollars Zifa receives from world football governing body Fifa and continental umbrella body Caf.

Kamambo has failed to show leadership and direction in the two years he has been in office and this begs the question; where does all this money go since there’s virtually no visible grassroots development initiated or funded by Zifa.

Could the absence of experienced people with traceable football administration in the Zifa executive committee be to blame for the evident lack of ideas, direction and progress?

The truth is that the current Zifa leadership is not capable of disentangling local football from the self-made mess.
The disqualification of the national Under-17 boys’ team from the Cosafa tournament after one or more players failed an MRI scan last week is a reflection of what is going on at Zifa.

The Zifa secretariat is completely dysfunctional, as the chief executive officer literally operates like a clerk. While Botswana Football Association suspended its CEO to facilitate proper investigations into the disqualification of their Under-17 team from the Cosafa tournament, Zifa instead chose to appeal the suspension instead of demanding that the secretariat accounts for the Under-17 shenanigans.

It had to take the intervention of the Sports and Recreation Commission to suspend Zifa CEO Joseph Mamutse, although Fifa is likely to view it as government interference and could result in Zimbabwe being suspended from the world governing body and the Warriors being thrown out of the Afcon and World Cup qualifiers. Had Zifa commissioned an independent investigation, the total mess junior football is mired in would have been unearthed.

Cosafa clearly stated that each association should have conducted MRI scans in the presence of a Caf medical officer to ensure all players that travelled for the tournament were eligible, but the Zifa secretariat didn’t bother.

It instead deviously acquired clearance for the team to travel to South Africa in violation of laid down procedures and Covid-19 regulations as spelled out by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Although the technical staff should also shoulder their share of responsibility for this shame as the ones responsible for selecting players, the national association is largely to blame for the absence of a clear national youth development programme.

Provinces, regions and area zones run different competitions with no monitoring from the national association. It doesn’t appear as if Zifa has registers or records of clubs and academies running youth teams. There are no rules and regulations governing the establishment of youth clubs or academies.

For example, some provinces run even number age groups such as Under-12, Under-16 and Under-18, while others run odd number age groups such as Under-13, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19.

Worse still some provinces do not even have junior leagues.

There have been claims of some “academies” producing players, but how many of these so-called academies are registered with Zifa? Who is monitoring these academies and how are they established? Do they organise competitions and what size of footballs do different age groups use?

Are all age groups expected to organise XI vs XI competitions?

Last year Zifa confirmed the establishment of national Under-15 leagues, but no policy document was published to guide their operations.

Funds received from Fifa were disbursed to various provinces, but is there anything happening on the ground?
The Zifa congress, which prides itself as the parliament of local football, is dormant and complicit by leaving the executive committee to operate unchecked.

In fact, members of the Zifa congress don’t seem to know what their function is. They seem unaware that they possess the power to hold the executive committee to account and can recall any member for incompetence.

Instead of just waiting for reports on the state of football at annual general meetings and electing the executive, congress members must bare their teeth and bite when necessary to help salvage our football.

Most are satisfied to be fed on crumbs from Fifa money to buy their silence, while the executive continues to plunder and blunder, and our football continues its slide into abyss.

Premier Soccer League clubs have been directed to establish youth teams for the past 10 years, but very few have adhered.

Clubs with junior teams have not been receiving any financial support from Zifa, so what exactly is the money from Fifa used for?

Zifa congress members should be taking the executive to task over such issues instead of them only being visible when jostling to be taken on jaunts to the Afcon or World Cup. We need capable, honest and effective leaders at Zifa urgently to stop our football from further becoming a tragic farce.