Inside sport: Zifa posts jostle gets interesting

By The Southern Eye | Oct. 31, 2021

There are of course some who are giving Kamambo and his vice Philemon Machana the impression that they still have years in office, but the weather out there tells a completely different story.

BY MICHAEL KARIATI

THE jostling for positions in Zifa is getting more and more interesting by the day with more and more names coming up seeking to replace the sitting leadership.

The elections are pencilled for March 2022, but each and every day there is someone declaring their interest in one or other of the positions that make up the Zifa board.

The reason why there is this early jostling for positions is the general belief that the Felton Kamambo-led board has failed and should not be allowed to stay a day longer.

There are of course some who are giving Kamambo and his vice Philemon Machana the impression that they still have years in office, but the weather out there tells a completely different story.

In fact, the Zifa board should have resigned on the day they themselves fired Zdravko Logarusic because the damage they had done to Zimbabwe football then, was far beyond estimation.

Even Marshall Gore who is based in the United Kingdom is pained by the road Zimbabwean football has taken and is willing to sacrifice the much sought after life abroad to lead Zimbabwean football.

So too is successful Harare businessman and football administrator Bernard Gwarada, who believes that football is big business and, therefore, business intelligence is important in turning around the waning fortunes of the Zimbabwean game.

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Gwarada is rumoured to be seeking the highest office to correct the wrongs done having gone through the football mill as treasurer and director of Douglas Warriors and later on as Zifa board member finance before a fall out with then Zifa president Cuthbert Dube.

The seed of discontent has even gone far to the extent that 46-year-old Alois Bunjira believes Zimbabwean football needs fresh inspiration and is throwing his name into the hat to lead the Zimbabwean game.

Ellen Chiwenga — on the other hand — thinks Zimbabwean football now needs a female leader after watching the game fall from grace to grass over the past 11 years under male leadership.

Twine Phiri, who was controversially kicked out of the game when Phillip Chiyangwa took over at Zifa also wants in. Phiri wants a grand return, but this time not at the Premier Soccer League but right there at 53 Livingstone Avenue.

Another interesting candidate is football benefactor and former Lengthens director Beadle Musa Gwasira who is keeping his net wide.

Gwasira knows his way around the football corridors having served at The Happy People and later on as Premier Soccer League board member and now feels he is ready for a post in the Zifa board.

The businessman recently went out of his way to donate cement and refrigerators to Barbourfields Stadium to help renovate the ground as it faced international ban.

That said, the line up of potential candidates for the Zifa presidency looks heavy and it will be interesting to see where this journey will take us to.

The truth, however, is that it will not be easy to get rid of Kamambo and company before the 2022 Fifa congress that precedes the start of the World Cup.

With Fifa paying all expenses and subsistence for three delegates from Zifa who will also be allowed to watch some of the opening matches of the 2022 World Cup, the battle to offload them before the World Cup will be hard.

What they are trying to do is to hide behind the fact that they were elected in December 2018 and as such their term ends in December 2022, forgetting that the constitution is clear that their term expires in March 2022.

Whatever the case is, the truth is that the entire Zifa leadership is facing the exit except probably for Sugar Chagonda, who could be saved by his decision to recommend the sacking of Logarusic

What is also interesting is the fact that the names of Moderm Ngwenya, Eric Mvududu, Beki Nyoni, Benjani Mwaruwari, Francis Zimunya, and Edward Mutukwa, are also being linked with various positions in the Zifa board – a clear indication of the hunger that football people have to clean their game of the mess it is in.

Those who follow Zimbabwean football are hoping that this will be an election where money will not play a big role but an election where the right people will be chosen to lead the Zimbabwean game.

What we need when election day finally comes — which could also be anytime — is for the Zifa congress to vote freely and wisely, basing their choices on the programs presented by the candidates — Or else, we will be back where we are today and crying again.