Mashingaidze must be shown exit

Sport
The future of our national soccer team continues to be an issue of great concern as week in and week out a new chapter continues to be added to the Warriors’ long suffering history.

The future of our national soccer team continues to be an issue of great concern as week in and week out a new chapter continues to be added to the Warriors’ long suffering history.

Michael Kariati

It is disheartening that nine months after he was offered the double job of junior and senior national team coach, Kalisto Pasuwa has not received a salary from his employers.

There is no reason why Zifa should not have found a sponsor to pay Pasuwa’s salary in the wake of his achievements.

Considering what he has done in the past four years or so, Pasuwa is a brand which everyone wants to be associated with.

There are too many people out there willing to sponsor Pasuwa’s salary as national coach. Others are also willing to sponsor the national coach in different ways in return for mileage.

A knock on any office door using Pasuwa’s name would yield positive results. Unfortunately, there are no longer people within our football leadership with the slightest clue on how to use such clout to their advantage.

Or maybe, this is a reflection of the quality of the man who is leading the secretariat at Zifa — chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze.

The post of chief executive officer was created to replace that of secretary-general, which means Mashingaidze runs Zimbabwean football.

The question is: What is he doing in the office when the national team is in such depths of despair? Isn’t it part of his job to ensure that funds are sourced and that the national coach’s salary is available?

The response from Zifa is that the federation is broke and that nobody wants to help them. That is utter rubbish. Does it require any money for one to approach NetOne or Telecel and ask them to sponsor the salary or bonus of the national team coach? Logic also dictates that it does not require much to send an e-mail or a letter to Sino-Zimbabwe seeking assistance for the national soccer team or coach?

We would have expected Mashingaidze to be at the fore front of doing that. But alas, the man is busy doing something else. Papa, as Mashingaidze is popularly known, is more interested in what football is giving him.

He is comfortable with spending much of his time flying around the globe for Cosafa, CAF and Fifa meetings, while ignoring the most important issues back home.

Word filtering through is that the Zifa CEO has been thrusted into the CAF Appeals Committee. I thought these positions were supposed to be for Zifa board members, instead of a full-time employees of the association.

What is there for Mashingaidze at CAF that is of great importance than the job he was employed to do?

The truth is that Mashingaidze is not and has not been doing the job he is being paid to do. Or maybe, he does not have any idea what his job is all about.

How he has lasted this long at 53 Livingstone Avenue is diffcult to comprehend. Not only has he failed to execute his duties efficiently, he has also made serious blunders that have brought disgrace to the country.

He should have been fired for the Valinhos debacle, and for the manner in which he handled the whole 2017 Africa Cup of Nations bid.

But Mashingaidze continues to hold on to the position. One thing for sure is that Mashingaidze has done a good job of maintaining his closeness to Zifa President Cuthbert Dube. The truth is that the current Zifa secretariat is dead. It is probably the worst since 2004 when the post of secretary-general was abolished.

How can we say we have a CEO when our junior national team is begging for money for fuel in a foreign land?

How can we say we have a CEO when the national team is in camp for two days ahead of an important Africa Cup of Nations assignment? How can we say we have a CEO when he cannot even find a sponsor for a very successful and popular national coach?

Although Dube does not see it, the solution to our football problems lies in giving Mashingaidze the boot and bringing in new blood.

It does not matter whether the CEO successor is a football person or not. Zifa should just employ somebody with a track record of success. Perhaps that way, our football might see the light.

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