THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation was yesterday forced to postpone a scheduled hearing with the Sports and Recreation Commission that was meant to update parliamentarians on the state of football in the country.
Concerned by Zimbabwe’s prolonged suspension from FIFA and CAF-sanctioned events, the parliamentarians had summoned the sports regulator to explain the progress regarding the steps being taken to bring normalcy to the game.
However, the meeting could not take place after the Sports Commission sent an apology that some of their members were not available for the session due to circumstances beyond their control.
“We have postponed the meeting because we received a message that some of the members of the SRC delegation have been caught up with some pressing business, which is beyond their own control.
“So a new date will be announced; they will let us know when they are ready,” said a Parliament official.
The legislators resolved to call the commission following their recent meeting with the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry.
The parliamentarians expressed their worries over Zimbabwe’s suspension by FIFA. Zimbabwe’s membership was suspended by the world football governing body in February last year.
FIFA invoked article 13 of the FIFA Statutes on February 24 last year when they announced ZIFA had lost all its membership rights, alleging third party interference, in the wake of the suspension of the bungling ZIFA board by the Sports Commission.
As a result, the nation has missed out on various FIFA and CAF approved football tournaments for both men and women during the last 12 months. ZIFA was also cut off from accessing FIFA development grants and excluded from all development programmes.
However, Coventry told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation that football stakeholders have made headway towards bringing sanity into the domestic game.
This followed the release of the report and recommendations by the ZIFA Restructuring Committee set up by the Sports Commission to “to study, make recommendations for, and, following approval by the SRC, put into action any necessary improvements in the administration of football in Zimbabwe.”
The report by the Restructuring Committee is a product of broader consultative processes with football stakeholders, during which engagement was sought from a general football audience to obtain insights into the state of football at various levels.
The common sentiment among the stakeholders was that the game was suffering because of institutional challenges at ZIFA House.
The Restructuring Committee unearthed a chain of anomalies ranging from the flawed and outdated ZIFA constitution, skewed electoral processes, the lack of proficiency by office holders, manipulation of football governance systems, corruption, financial mismanagement, lack of development strategies and the wanton disregard of the needs of women’s football.
It also emerged the majority of the stakeholders engaged by the Restructuring Committee were in agreement that Zimbabwean football needed a reboot.
The Committee compiled detailed findings and made some key recommendations the game could adopt in order to get out of the current quagmire.
Key among the recommendations was the adoption of a new constitution and the election of credible candidates to run football affairs at ZIFA.
The Sports Commission also instituted a forensic audit that unearthed corruption and serious financial mismanagement at ZIFA.
The recommendations have since been conveyed to the relevant football leaders at ZIFA for consideration. The ZIFA Congress will also vote whether to adopt the recommendations or not.
But before that is done, the ZIFA board has called stakeholders to a workshop next week to unpack and analyse the contents of the reports.
“The Executive Committee has received a copy of the ZIFA Restructuring Committee report, and a workshop will be conducted on the 24th and 25th of February to analyse the report,” said ZIFA acting president Gift Banda.
“Other submissions from the ZIFA Exco, members, and stakeholders will be deliberated upon in an effort to come up with the best position for football.
“It is imperative for the ZIFA constitution to be in tandem with the FIFA constitution, and will synthesize this with submissions from the ZIFA restructuring committee. Consequently, all these will lead to the formulation of a roadmap.
“Other reforms in the report like the strategic plan, the Association had already embarked on formulating one,” said Banda. – The Herald
