New Zifa board will decide councillors’ future

Lovemore Dube

Zimpapers Sports Hub

THE Zifa board, coming into office on January 25 next year, will decide whether the Assembly that will vote stays or elections are held.

Fifa suggested a top-to-bottom approach on the way forward for Zimbabwean football, which has not had substantive leadership since 2022.

A Zifa Normalisation Committee (NC) was put in place by FIFA on July 11, last year, under the stewardship of former Dynamos striker Lincoln Mutasa.

His committee, however, failed to hold elections in the 12 months they had initially been given.

After a year in office, Fifa extended the terms for Mutasa, Rose Mugadza, a former Mighty Warriors coach, and Nyasha Samanyandwe, a legal practitioner.

Cynthia Malaba and Sikhumbuzo Ndebele were not retained as they had managed to put in place structures in their respective briefs.

Malaba set up the Zifa finance structure while Ndebele left after seeing to it that the national association had a head of coach education and technical director.

Joseph Sibindi, a former sports science lecturer at NUST, was appointed head of coach education while Jethro Hunidzarira took over as technical director.

But yesterday Samanyandwe said it would be up to the new board to retain the existing Assembly or hold elections for Area Zone, provinces, regions, women’s soccer, and other bodies like Futsal and Beach Football.

“The way forward beyond 25 January is not our mandate. We can only recommend if our advice is sought; otherwise, our focus is getting elections done on the day, and we wind up. It will be up to the new board to decide the way forward,” said Samanyandwe.

Some candidates are using the extension of term for councillors as a campaign tool.

The mandate of the Zifa Assembly ended in 2022 after they served a four-year term that began in 2018 with Felton Kamambo and Gift Banda having been voted president and deputy.

They were given a new lease of life when Fifa appointed the NC last year and further cemented their hold by allowing them to participate in the November 22 annual general meeting of the association, which approved the new constitution and pathway to the January 25 elections.

There has been a feeling, though, that elections are needed to legitimise them, and also fresh brooms are needed, as some of them have been in office for close to two decades. The January 25 elections are expected to usher in a 10-member board.