WHILE Zimbabwe football is in total chaos with no solution in sight on the relegation and promotion impassé, Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa was surprisingly elected unopposed as the new Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) president in Rustenburg, South Africa, yesterday.
BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
Chiyangwa was elected unopposed for the southern Africa bloc’s football hot seat, after South Africa’s Danny Jordaan and long-serving president Suketu Patel from Seychelles pulled out of the race at the regional elective congress.
Patel decided not to stand for re-election after completing two terms in office, while Jordaan is understood to have pulled out of the race, as he is now eyeing a Fifa post.
Namibia’s Frans Mbidi will deputise Chiyangwa for the next five years, while the executive committee members include General Pedro Neto (Angola), Andrew Kamanga (Zambia), Sameer Sobha (Mauritius), Alberto Simanga (Mozambique) and Walter Nyamilandu-Manda (Malawi), who served as an ordinary member in the outgoing executive.
According to a statement by Cosafa, Jordaan, David Fani and Mclean Letshwidi (both from Botswana) withdrew from the vote for ordinary members.
Chiyangwa, who became the first-ever Zifa boss to be at the helm of the regional body, was ecstatic after his election, declaring he had already set his sights on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Fifa.
“We have won. This is not for me, but for the country as a whole. It [the victory] is made more special because this is the first time that it has happened for Zimbabwe,” he said.
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“It means we are the ones who are now running football in southern Africa, which is very good for us. This is just the beginning because from Cosafa, we are going to take over at CAF and from CAF, we are going to Fifa,” he added.
The Zifa president’s election comes as a surprise following the negative publicity that the local football governing body has been getting throughout the year due to constant administrative bungling.
Zimbabwe football has been sharply divided as the stand-off between the Chiyangwa-led local football motherbody and its main affiliate, the Premier Soccer league (PSL), continues to escalate, with sponsors threatening to pull the plug.
Many other important issues pertaining to the association’s debt of over $6 million, player welfare and revival of sound junior football structures have been largely ignored.
Zimbabwe’s senior football teams have, however, still managed to do well under harsh conditions, with the Mighty Warriors participating at the Rio Olympics in Brazil as well as the Africa Women Cup of Nations held in Cameroon last month.
The senior national men’s team, the Warriors, will be southern Africa’s sole representatives at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon next month
Zimbabwe’s success on the field of play could have been one of the reasons why the 14-member Cosafa representatives chose Chiyangwa to lead the region’s football bloc.
However, it has not been all rosy off the field of play in Zimbabwean football as Chiyangwa has launched a ruthless scourge on several sports administrators who dare to oppose his unorthodox methods through suspensions and bans.
Meanwhile, Patel, the out-going president, said he believed he had completed his mission to help develop football in the Cosafa region and it was now time to pass on the baton.
“When I took over the presidency 10 years ago, development was the objective and we have achieved that,” he said in a statement released by Cosafa.
“It is important to know when one has done his job and leave with dignity.
“Back then, we had one tournament, our senior challenge, but this year we have hosted five events across the age-groups in men’s and women’s football. It has always been our objective that young players’ first exposure to international football is in our region. I hope that legacy will continue.
“We have great sponsors in place and these relationships now need to be nurtured. We have built a credible institution that is accountable to its members. Cosafa is perceived to be the premier region in the CAF family.”
