Zifa indaba flops

Sport
ZIFA was yesterday forced to postpone its crucial indaba after the majority of the association’s councillors, including the majority of representatives from Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs, failed to turn up at the meeting.

ZIFA was yesterday forced to postpone its crucial indaba after the majority of the association’s councillors, including the majority of representatives from Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs, failed to turn up at the meeting.

BY DANIEL NHAKANISO

Zifa-house

The Zifa Assembly members were expected to meet in the capital to discuss the proposed dissolution of the association after its initial bid to be placed under trustee management flopped last week.

Sources told Standardsport that the indaba ended up being an informal meeting after most stakeholders decided not to attend the event.

“Basically, it was a non-event. There was only one or two representatives from PSL, including the PSL chairman Peter Dube, but the rest decided not to go. It ended up being an informal meeting and there seemed to be no indication on what should be the way forward except to confirm that there’s no more National Football Association of Zimbabwe (Nafaz),” said the source.

Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa had on Friday said yesterday’s meeting had been convened solely to dissolve the association again. And when contacted for comment after yesterday’s meeting, a defiant Chiyangwa insisted that the meeting had gone according to plan without further elaborating.

“The indaba went well, that’s all I can say our communications manager [Xolisani Gwesela] will issue a statement on the resolutions,” he said.

The local football governing body later decided not to issue a statement.

Zifa was dissolved on June 4 after which a new association, Nafaz was formed before suffering stillbirth.

The dissolution was met with stiff resistance from stakeholders, particularly from creditors owed over $6 million, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and the government through Sports minister Makhosini Hlongwane.

Government recently declared Zifa’s dissolution as null and void, arguing that proper procedures had not been followed.

Although the Chiyangwa-led executive initially stood their ground, arguing that everything was done above board, they were eventually forced to make a major climb-down, hence the fresh bid to dissolve the association again.