BY TERRY MADYAUTA/MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
ZIFA president Felton Kamambo has rubbished suggestions by the Premier Soccer League (PSL) that the association’s disbursement of the Fifa Covid-19 relief funds was not in the best interest of the domestic game, which has been hit hard by the financial implications of the pandemic.
The PSL recently expressed its concern mostly over the suspicious reduction of their initial allocation budget of US$20 000 for administration purposes published in July to just US$10 000 in the final document released about a fortnight ago.
It was the PSL’s argument that the amount allocated makes it difficult for the association to restart competitions as the resumption of league football this year remains doubtful.
Other issues raised by the PSL include the substantial amount of funds allocated to inactive affiliates such as Beach Soccer, Futsal and Areas zones as well as the failure by Zifa to pay professional footballers directly in hard currency instead of via the clubs.
Speaking at the presentation of groceries for long-serving Zifa Central Region administrator Sam Dlodlo, who retired recently at after 19 years of service, Kamambo said the decision was arrived after consultations with affiliates and the board merely followed those recommendations.
“We shared this money according to the recommendations we got from all the affiliates. At first we had made the decision alone as the board, but we realised that it was necessary to hear our people’s voice. We took their concerns and that is what we used in distributing the funds, which we believe will help the clubs and everyone to carry themselves,” said Kamambo.
The Zifa boss, who is court to answer charges of bribing Zifa councillors to vote for him in the election which got him into office almost two years ago, also took time to explain the reasons for halving the PSL allocation.
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“The only money that was affected was for the PSL admin because most of our affiliates raised a point that it’s not only PSL that have admin, so they recommended that the US$ 20 000 initially directed for PSL administration be shared equally among the affiliates.
“We said PSL was going to get US$100 000, which was going straight to the teams and on the second tranche they were going to get US$ 44 000 for the payment of their referees and then US$66 000 was going to the clubs equally.
“But from the recommendations, they said the US$66 000 be used to pay referees for PSL, divisions one, two three and four which means if football resumes in September, October or even next year, there won’t be a club burdened with paying referees in all leagues,” he said.
“These are the areas we were facing mainly from PSL but the bottom line is we took their noble ideas of consultations and to that end we also used part of the recommendations but still some are not happy, but we believe the money was shared amicably,” Kamambo said.
Kamambo also revealed that the Fifa Forward Funds have been reserved for national teams participating in continental tournaments.
He also highlighted the lack of government support as the reason why they had failed to commit more of the monies to the welfare of players during the current difficult Covid-19 pandemic situation.
“While other countries took the Fifa Forward Funds and directed them towards Covid-19, we resolved that we have to use them for other activities,” he said.
“Countries like Zambia and Malawi have the full backing of their governments, and we do not have that luxury so we are directing those funds to the Warriors cause and all national teams so that we do not find ourselves in controversy again,” Kamambo added.
According to the Zifa boss, the association has assumed the role to pay PSL referees.
Kamambo also revealed that they were moving to compensate all their former workers, who had been thrown by the wayside by the previous executive led by Phillip Chiyangwa.
Yesterday they honoured Dlodlo having already given him his exit package, four years after leaving the institution, and they are set to do the same for Tadious Machawire, who is based in the Eastern Region.
Dlodlo, who was recently paid his pension and long-service gratuity, was yesterday handed a grocery hamper worth over $20 000.
