Nqobile Magwizi began his reign on Saturday after councillors gave him a mandate to take local football to the promised land.
The new Zifa president, who won by a landslide after garnering 61 votes, will be ably supported by a team of credible men and women after the cartel that took football to its knees suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of councillors who rejected its nominees.
Magwizi will be supported by his two vice-presidents Loveness Mukura and Kenny Ndebele, six committee members elected on Saturday — Kudzai Kadzombe, Tafadzwa Benza, Brighton Ushendibaba, Alice Zeure, Daveson Muchena and Thomas Marambanyika — and a representative each from the Premier Soccer League and the Women’s Soccer League.
Work is cut out for the 11-member board to extricate local football from the shadows of the Fifa-installed normalisation committee which has been babysitting Zifa for nearly two years.
Local football needs to break with the past of briefcase businessmen who imposed themselves as kingmakers and would pull strings in the background with the executive committee used as pawns.
That cabal is dead and buried after the councillors elected a new board littered with experience from various fields which, if harnessed, can turn around the fortunes of Zifa.
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The first task for the board is to build a football institution with a strong corporate governance culture where delineation of roles is pronounced.
The Warriors have two key World Cup matches against Benin and Nigeria in March. The Warriors anchor Group C of the Fifa World Cup African qualifiers with two points, five behind leaders Benin and has six rounds of matches to play. The team’s cause is complicated in that it has been playing home matches outside Zimbabwe because the country does not have Caf-certified stadiums.
The new Zifa board must besiege the government to expedite refurbishment works at the National Sports Stadium so that it meets standards. The Warriors qualified for this year’s Afcon finals in Morocco with a game to spare despite playing all its home matches in Uganda and South Africa.
The stadium crisis must be addressed as a matter of urgency to enhance Zimbabwe’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup finals next year.
Magwizi promised to improve governance at Zifa during his campaign. He said that at his first Press conference on Saturday, adding that Zifa will be accountable to all its stakeholders.
He said an all-stakeholder meeting is on the cards where the football family will meet to chart a new course. This will include participation of those that either lost the election or were disqualified to run for office.
This will bridge the animosity created by elections. Football must be the winner.
For the new Zifa board, work began on Saturday and it has placed itself under scrutiny.
Electioneering is over and the football family expects results and not excuses.
They must show us that they are not cut from the same cloth with the previous administrators that took football to the museum. Corporate governance must be the buzzwords if the association is to lure corporates to football.
Credit must go to the Sports and Recreation Commission for taking the big gamble to suspend the Felton Kamambo executive, which triggered a ban by Fifa and the reforms that ushered in the new leaders on Saturday.
Without the restrictions imposed by the new Zifa constitution, we would have seen all and sundry vying for the posts.