HERENTALS owner Innocent Benza has ruled himself out of the race for the Zifa president post which is up for contestation in January together with other board member posts.
Benza said he has been inundated with calls for him to throw his name in the hat, but despite being tempted, he will pass on the opportunity this time around.
Some candidates expected to register interest include Caps United president Farai Jere, Yadah owner Walter Magaya, Richard Mazodze of Wangu Mazodze, UK-based Marshall Gore, former Caps owner Twine Phiri and businessman Gilbert Muponda, among others.
There are others that have already expressed interest but will fall by the way side as they do not meet certain requirements.
Benza has run his club Herentals so well such that he has impressed stakeholders who want him to be boss of the national game.
The elections will come in the New Year where the normalisation committee's term of office comes to an end.
Zifa's new constitution was this week registered by the Sport and Recreation Commission paving way for the elections and some candidates have started campaigning.
Benza has said he will watch from the sidelines but will pick a candidate that he can back.
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“Of late I have been receiving a lot of calls from stakeholders to consider running for the position of Zifa president,” he said yesterday.
"It is not something that I have been thinking about. In fact, I am ready to support whoever wants to go for it as long as they are competent and fit the required criteria.
“I love football enough and becoming its leader would have been quite exciting especially with so much support from stakeholders who are making a lot of calls for me to become the Zifa leader.
“I am really humbled to receive all those calls from key football people. It shows that, they have trust in me.
“I am not entirely ruling it out but for now I am choosing not to contest and I will support the right candidate for the post.”
Benza has been lauded for his administrative acumen presiding over a group of schools as well as sports teams under his wing.
He owns Herentals FC in the topflight league, Herentals Under 20 in the Northern Region Division One Soccer League as well as Herentals Queens, which represented Zimbabwe at the Caf Champions League qualifiers this year.
He runs four Herentals Division 2 teams in Harare, Rusape, Kadoma and Bulawayo.
The Mutasa legislator sits on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Sports.
“I have been in football administration for close to 30 years and we have also been running other sports like cricket and we have regularly provided national team players,” he told NewsDay Sport.
“I hope to support the right candidate for the position based on different factors.”
