BUSINESSMAN Bernard Gwarada is planning to influence a better working relationship between Zifa and local authorities to build and improve infrastructure if he returns to the association's executive committee.
Gwarada's candidature was rectified last week after he was initially barred from contesting.
He is one of 38 candidates vying for the six ordinary executive committee posts in an election that will be conducted on January 25.
Gwarada believes establishment of football facilities is key to the development of the sport from grassroots level.
"The starting point is for our kids to play football," he said. "So we need to have facilities where kids can constantly play football. I was born in Highfield and growing up our entertainment was centred on municipality sports infrastructure. Indoor sports was at CJ Hall, we had Zimbabwe Grounds for social soccer/money games, a swimming pool at Machipisa and Sunday afternoon we would go to Gwanzura Stadium to enjoy for free the last 15 minutes of Super League football."
He emphasised the importance of municipalities in the development of the game.
"This is how important municipalities are in our football. They have everything, including land. So when I am voted into office it’s an issue that I believe the leadership should put on top of the agenda. There is a need for continuous engagement with municipalities across the country with a view of coming up with a win-win situation. Municipalities would be poorer if football was not played in their stadiums."
Gwarada has been a Zifa board member before and is hoping to help the association re-establish the Zifa Cup and also attract sponsorship for national teams.
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Zifa is struggling for facilities including offices and the Zifa Village is below par compared with other countries' facilities of that kind.
Gwarada is a businessman with interests in tourism, energy and commodity trading and has an administration and finance background.
He worked in a bank before he moved to German Development Corporation and later joined European Union Delegation in Zimbabwe as a senior finance and administration executive.
He has experience which cuts across a range of disciplines, including strategic leadership, commodity broking, people management and socio-economic development, corporate knowledge, governance and risk management.
Gwarada was a co-owner of the now defunct Douglas Warriors which played in the topflight league.
He was a board member in charge of finance between 2014 and 2015 where he was also part of the Zifa finance committee.
The experienced football administrator is hoping to bounce back and help manage the association's finances to good effect.
Part of Zifa's problems have stemmed from mismanagement of funds which stalked the last board led by Felton Kamambo.
These problems led to the dissolution of the board which attracted a Fifa ban.
The association has been under the stewardship of a Normalisation Committee whose tenure ends once a new board is in place.
Gwarada is ready to work with whoever wins the post of president where six candidates are battling out for the biggest football job in the country.
Twine Phiri, Marshall Gore, Philemon Machana, Nqobile Magwizi, Makwinji Soma Phiri and Martin Kweza are rivals in the Zifa president post.
