The election breeze is blowing

THERE is something that is going on behind the scenes that tells us that Zifa board elections could be held anytime in 2024.

Although the Zifa normalisation committee has remained quiet with regards to the elections, the intensity of the jostle for positions — in the corridors seems to point to the fact that there are some who know more of what is happening than the rest of us.

There is so much activity going on behind the scenes to the extent that different camps have allocated each other positions although at the moment it is premature to reveal who is going for what position.

Although the names of Walter Magaya and UK based Marshall Gore are being thrown around, there are more —including some familiar faces — who also want the mantle of being Zifa president.

Standardsport is not at liberty to reveal who is vying for the Zifa presidency, but can safely reveal that the list reads like a who-is-who in Zimbabwean football.

Even that Scott Sakupwanya has taken to the field of play with his Zifa Northern Region One side, Scotland FC, and claims now to have been 'heavily' involved in football for years further fuels the election breeze.

Apart from bankrolling this Scotland side, the Member of Parliament for Mabvuku claims to have been involved in junior football development in his area and was behind the team that used to run Mabvuku United.

What a coincidence of the timing of his revelation of his 'long' association with football and the jostling for Zifa board positions that is going on elsewhere and the possibility of Zifa board elections this year.

The football family, however, is concerned with the normalisation committee's reluctance to share where they are now in terms of the constitution and how far they have gone with regards to the elections.

They feel that the Constitution

itself has a lot of grey areas which need to be patched up before elections in the area zones, the districts, the provinces, the regions, and the PSL can be held.

They are worried that even the recommendations of the SRC appointed Zifa restructuring committee on the Zifa constitution have not been implemented, two years after they were suggested.

However, word is that there is unlikely to be immediate elections in all the Zifa affiliates as the sitting councillors will elect the new Zifa boardsomething that another section of the football family is resisting.

This sitting Zifa assembly is the one that has been accused of causing the problems, which Zimbabwean football has been having since 2010 when Cuthbert Dube ascended to football power.

In fact, this Zifa assembly has been accused of selling its vote to undeserving candidates while at the same time rejecting those with the ability to turn Zimbabwean football around.

The football family, however, is fed up with the normalisation committee and does not care who votes or who doesn’t but just wants a substantive Zifa board at 53 Livingstone Avenue.

What they are hoping for is that this time around, the Zifa assembly will abandon their 'money for vote tradition' and get things right.

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