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The association’s chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze indicated that the meeting will review the year that has not been so good for the national association and also chart the way forward, which includes getting into motion the Warriors Trust Fund.

Zifa have been reeling under serious financial challenges, the Asiagate scandal and the underperformance by the national team.
Mashingaidze said many problems stemmed from their weak financial position and said they needed to come up with working strategies to stem the perennial problem.

He said the football mother body would seek ways to reduce their mounting debts, which have sunk their coffers to a huge deficit of around $4m. 
The association has dismally failed to lure sponsorship and their efforts to get the government chip in have been fruitless.

The consequences of their bankruptcy were deeply felt when they failed to bankroll the national Under17 and Under20 teams’ trips in their continental qualifiers this year and the youth teams now risk sanctions from the Confederation of African Football which include fines and bans.
Mashingaidze said it was unfortunate that the association was operating in the red.

“How do you measure the effectiveness of a national association if you are operating with a deficit of $4m? If Zifa were a company, they could have closed long back. We need to move forward with the issue of the Warriors Trust fund so that we don’t continue going around with the begging bowel.

“The Under17 and the Under 20s failed to travel and the question to ask is where were the resources going to coming from? Zifa has been moving from pillar to post looking for money to finance all the operations and it has been a difficult task.

“Expecting money to come from the national fiscus has also been a big problem for us because the government itself has got many core issues that need to be attended to.

“We also had sponsorship problems and it was tricky in this aspect because we had no allweather friends. We have seen people coming and going but with no serious commitment for the long term. So we have to get the Warriors Trust fund in motion to take care of our national teams. There are also other ways which we can explore for example the issue of TV rights and selling our merchandise,” said Mashingaidze.

Zifa will also discuss the new shape of the Warriors and lay down their plans for the year as they are expected to resume the World Cup qualifiers in March. Zimbabwe have had a poor start in the campaign prompting the board to dissolve the national team recently.

A largely newlook Warriors team will travel to Egypt in March under new coach Dieter Klaus Pagels and they will also face Mozambique and Guinea in the qualifiers later in the year.  
Zifa’s programmes have been derailed by mounting debts, which have literally crippled operations with association president Cuthbert Dube often being called on to chip in and use personal resources to bail out the local soccer mother body.

The board, which inherited a bankrupt association when they took over office in March 2010, have struggled to come out of the predicament and Fifa have expressed their disappointment with the way Zifa have failed to improve their finances. Zifa’s marketing strategies have often been criticised for failing to deliver.
Fifa development officer for Southern Africa Ashford Mamelodi and financial consultant Fidelis Banda were in the country recently and warned that Zifa risked losing the world soccer governing body’s support unless they show greater commitment to reducing their mounting debt.

Mashingaidze also revealed that today’s board meeting would look at the deadlines for the payment of fines by players and officials found guilty by the ethics committee in the Asiagate scandal.

The players and officials were handed suspensions for varying years depending on the culpability and last month the association handed a lifeline by giving options of paying fines. The deadline expires today.

Mashingaidze warned that those who will not comply by midnight would be risking their careers as the penalties that were imposed on them would immediately come into effect.

“Right now I cannot tell who has paid or hasn’t. The picture should be clearer on Monday (today) when the accounts department reconcile their books. 
“Let me also be clear on this issue, there is no extension of the deadline once it lapses. We will inform Fifa about the developments and this means automatically those who did not comply will find themselves jobless. We will write to their employers,” said Mashingaidze.