IS IT ALL ABOUT THE US$340K BOUNTY?

IS it a US$340 000 bounty, the carrot which the ZIFA leaders will get in the event of an extension of their term, which is derailing the roadmap for polls at the association?

That’s not a small cash incentive to get, for virtually doing either little or nothing, while pretending to be running a national game which appears cursed when it comes to its leadership.

With just four months to go before their term expires on June 30, the ZIFA Normalisation Committee still have a mountain to climb to try and tick all the boxes as demanded by FIFA.

The process has moved very slowly one can be forgiven to assume they were only appointed last week when, in reality, they have been around for EIGHT months.

One would have expected that by now they would be going into the final phase of the checklist of their task and would by now have been focussed on the following:

To review the ZIFA Statutes and Electoral Code to ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements, and to ensure their adoption by the ZIFA Congress.

To act as an electoral committee in order to organise and conduct elections of a new ZIFA Board based on the newly aligned ZIFA Statutes and Electoral Code.

To ensure a proper financial handover to the new ZIFA Board.

There was a suggestion from ZIFA last month that the election season would start soon with the area zones.

However, nothing appears to be moving and, at this stage, it seems the normalisation committee are looking at getting an extension of their mandate.

Should that happen, they won’t be the first normalisation committee to have their mandate extended.

And, to the committee members that will come with huge financial benefits.

Reports have indicated that ZIFA boss Lincoln Mutasa earns US$8 000 a month from FIFA while his four committee members each get US$5 000 a month.

The ZIFA leaders have not disputed this since their appointments.*

It means they will, as a team, earn a further US$336 000 should their mandate be extended for a year.

Mutasa, alone, will pocket a further US$96 000 while his committee members will get, as a team, US$240 000.

For someone who wanted to be the ZIFA vice-president, which is a volunteer job which doesn’t come with monthly financial payments, this is a huge financial windfall for Mutasa.

He lost to Omega Sibanda in the race for the ZIFA vice-president but today finds himself as the leader of domestic football with a healthy monthly pay cheque to boot.

It hasn’t been established whether he is also receiving the annual US$20 000 which CAF pay every leader of a football association on the continent.

If that is the case then Mutasa, in the event the committee’s mandate is extended, would have made a cool US$232 000 for running ZIFA.

That should be a good incentive for one to try and hang on for as long as possible.