Umbro deal expires, in comes Puma

Fungai Muderere

The Zifa Normalisation Committee has announced that their deal with sports apparel brand, Umbro has collapsed.

This is a move that has seen the country’s football mother body get into a new deal with another renowned brand, Puma.

“We signed a deal with Puma three days ago,” said the Zifa Normalisation Committee member Rosemary Mugadza during a Zimpapers Television Network broadcast on Wednesday night.

She said the deal between the Association and Umbro fell out some three years ago. The revelation comes as the Warriors recently used Umbro branded kits when they played against Namibia and Botswana in friendly matches.

Only this week on Tuesday, the Mighty Warriors emerged immaculately dressed in Puma branded tracksuits on their way to South Africa for the COSAFA Women’s Championships that are on going in South Africa.

Mugadza has put to rest speculation that the national teams have no specific brand on their kits.

Meanwhile, in another development, the Normalisation Committee’s chairman Lincoln Mutasa revealed on the same show that the post of chief executive officer would be given to a woman.

Several individuals had reportedly applied for the post and it has been confirmed that all men that wanted the job, have bitten the dust.

The local football fraternity will have to wait to hail a woman figure to be appointed as CEO and it is likely the move will get a nod from the football family.

With word now having spread, it however remains dark as to who will be appointed. Mutasa confirmed the post will be given to a woman.

“The person who is going to assume the position of Zifa CEO is a woman. She has agreed to everything and we are left to soon announce the name which we can’t disclose at the moment. The issues to the next Zifa secretariat have been dealt with and interviews were done,” said Mutasa.

The local football mother body has been without a substantive CEO since the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) suspended Joseph Mamutse in 2021.

Mamutse — suspended together with the then-SRC director-general Prince Mupazviriho — was then reinstated but he never resumed his duties as he got entangled in the boardroom battles between the Felton Kamambo-led board and the sports regulator.

The Normalisation Committee,which was appointed mid this year, has been on an over drive seeking to bring sanity in the country’s most followed sport.