There is nothing to get excited about when the Zimbabwe football family goes to the polls this year to renew its entire leadership from the Area Zones up to the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) president.
By MICHAEL KARIATI
Zimbabwe is the only football-playing nation the world over which has refused to change and still believes that people with money are the solution to the country’s football problems.
How can a man with such a strong football background like 1982 Castle Soccer Star of the Year James Takavada, receive only one vote in an assembly of 54 votes?
Sitting president Philip Chiyangwa has declared that he will be seeking re-election and events on the ground suggest that if he does not retain his position, another wealthy candidate will take over.
Since 1993 — when Leo Mugabe ascended to power — Zimbabwean football has fallen to the habit of electing people in positions of authority on the strength of their pocket rather than their football knowledge.
Over those 25 years, it is on record that only one Zifa president, Wellington Nyatanga — who played for Gweru United and Zimbabwe Saints — had some football-playing background while the rest — Mugabe, Vincent Pamire, Rafik Khan, Cuthbert Dube, and now Chiyangwa — never played football at a high level, but were elected on the strength of their financial muscle.
It should also be placed on record that Nyatanga and Khan are the only former Zifa presidents who started at the lower end of the stick going upwards after leading the Premier Soccer League (PSL) first and later Zifa, while the rest started by landing the top position.
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Mugabe was Zifa president between 1993 and 2002, Vincent Pamire between 2002 and 2004, Khan between 2004 and 2006 and Nyatanga between 2006 and 2010. Cuthbert Dube was the Zifa boss between 2010 and 2015 before Chiyangwa took over.
Former CAPS United defender Charles Kanjera says people should be voted into office on the strength of the plan of action they present, not who they are. “The way we are doing things is wrong. We are looking at money first, then knowledge of the game second. The opposite should be true,” said Kanjera.
The fact remains that there is nothing wrong with giving football power to people with money but what is wrong is voting for the wrong people.
It does not make any sense for the Zifa Council to unanimously vote for a candidate only for them to pass a vote of no confidence on the same person, as happened to Leo Mugabe and later Cuthbert Dube.
The question is: What did the Zifa Council see in the first place when it gave that person a landslide win only for it to retrace its steps and say he is not the right person?
Fingers have always been pointed at the Zifa Council as the source of the problems in Zimbabwean football when it comes to choosing the football leadership. Since the elections which brought Mugabe to power in 1993, no Zifa election has come and gone without allegations of “vote buying” or “vote selling” being raised.
Although he has denied it, word that hit the streets was that Dube was booted out by the Zifa Council because he could no longer afford to pay the Zifa councillors the way he used to do, after leaving his high-paying job at PSMAS.
What is disturbing is that the names of the Zifa councillors alleged to be selling their votes have remained the same over the years, but no investigation has been instituted to find out whether the allegations are true or not.
Election time has come, and the solution to this problem is getting rid of these Zifa councillors, some of whom have been in office for over 15 years.
What is important now is to bring on board a new crop of lower division football leaders like former player, Cylde Musiwa, who is now head of Dzivarasekwa Area Zone. Musiwa represents an emerging crop of football leaders whose trademark is their relative youthfulness, energy, and vision.
The winds of change have blown at Caf and Fifa, why not in Zimbabwe? The Zifa Council must go, and in a clean sweep for that matter. Perhaps that way, Zimbabwean football will have the right people elected into the Zifa board.
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