Business as usual at Zifa regions
THE ZIFA Northern and Southern Regions put those who have been suggesting that the mandates of their leaders had lapsed to shame as they held their annual general meetings in the past two weeks without conducting any elections for their leadership.
Critics of the ZIFA board have been suggesting that domestic football will plunge into a constitutional crisis at the end of this month if elections for the association’s leadership are not held.
They argue that ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa and his board’s term of office expires at the end of the month because they were only serving to complete the term left by former ZIFA boss Cuthbert Dube and his team.
Dube resigned on the eve of the meeting where the ZIFA Councillors revoked the mandate of the entire board and the congress met in December 2015 where they elected a fresh leadership.
Chiyangwa has been saying that ZIFA statutes are clear when it comes to the elections of the ZIFA boss and they don’t provide for anything less than a full four-year term.
The case has been taken to world football governing body, who are yet to make a ruling, but the ZIFA Congress, who are the game’s ultimate leadership, can make pronouncements depending on the situation.
That both the ZIFA Northern and Southern Regions did not have elections at their annual meetings shows that the domestic football constituency is moving as a united front, following their last annual meeting last month, in terms of their election roadmap.
“That should tell you that the whole football community is marching in one direction because you cannot have elections for the ZIFA leadership without elections for the regions or provinces having been done,’’ sources said.
“The fact that the meetings held by the two regional powerhouses in the North and South passed without incident, in terms of this election thing, should tell you that these guys are marching as a united team.’’
Instead, the Division One League chose to appeal to clubs in their constituency to have junior teams who will play as curtain-raisers before the senior team matches.
The league is regarded as the best run in the country and they have said they now want to promote juniors among their members.
The ZIFA Northern Region had their annual meeting last Saturday ahead of the resumption of the championship on March 31.
Willard Manyengavana, the ZIFA Northern Region League chairman said if many clubs can manage to implement their proposal, then the recycling of old players will be a thing of the past.
“The games will begin on March 31 without fail,” said Manyengavana.
“We had a successful annual meeting where several issues were discussed and one of them was that teams introduce junior sides, who will contest in a mini-league before main matches pitting the first teams.
“We are looking forward to improve our league as well as promote junior development and we encourage teams not to spend much money buying players.
“To have Division One deemed a retirement zone for old players should be a thing of the past and we are going to make sure we move away from that from this season going forward.
“We understand some teams are suffering financially, but it is a recommendation which I believe if implemented, it will take us far.’’
The ZIFA Southern Region annual general meeting was held at the Homestead Conference Centre in Bulawayo.
The region’s affiliates, the 18 Southern Region Division One Soccer League clubs, executives for the Bulawayo and Matabeleland North Provinces and the chairpersons for the two provinces’ area zones attended the meeting.
Musa Mandaza, the Zifa Southern Region chairman presented his chairman’s report, while Bryton Malandule presented the financials.
The Southern Region Division One League also officially welcomed the newly-promoted teams as well as ex-Premiership sides Hwange and Tsholotsho FC.
The new teams are Bulawayo’s 2017 champions Toronto FC of Pumula, the runners-up CIWU, Plumtree-based Mainline FC and Moto Moto from Hwange.
“2017 was a difficult year for the league because most teams failed to pay their affiliation fees in full as well as pay match officials. We encourage teams to pay their dues to enable the league to function smoothly,” said Malandule.