ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa has demanded that his
leadership be accorded respect as they battle to keep national football afloat
in a tough operating environment under which many an institution could easily
have closed shop.
The association has battled long and hard in a harsh
economic climate to ensure that national teams fulfil their international
obligations with Chiyangwa, his deputy Omega Sibanda and board member Philemon
Machana the principal figures in that tireless fight.
The latest of such crucial obligations were the
back-to-back African Cup of Nations qualifying matches against the Democratic
Republic of Congo where ZIFA had to part with more than $200 000 to ensure a
successful fulfilment of the home and away assignments.
Yet in fulfilling such international obligations for the Warriors,
the Mighty Warriors and the Young Warriors, the association have had to dig
deeper into their own resources and rely on the ingenuity of their board.
It is against this background that Chiyangwa believes his
leadership deserves some respect for bringing back a business approach to an
institution that had earlier in 2015 been declared technically insolvent, only
for the Sport and Recreation Commission to sit on the findings of the Obadiah
Moyo probe team.
The ZIFA boss has been telling those who care to listen,
especially those in a poisoned football environment that his board needed to
make some tough business decisions for the association to stay afloat and
ensure that the Warriors are back playing again.
As the Warriors stand on the threshold of a return to the
Nations Cup show-piece, Chiyangwa said his ZIFA would continue with their
business approach and ensure there is stability in all of the domestic game’s
organs.
The Harare business tycoon had earlier also taken time to
tell listeners on Capitalk 100.4 FM that his board would continue to pull all
the stops to ensure they fulfil their mandate to govern and develop the game in
the country.
A case in point is when the Warriors travelled to Kinshasa
where they had to source for the scarce foreign currency for the airfares to
fly the players from their different bases in Europe and South Africa mostly
for the training camp.
The association also needed the hard currency for the
Warriors trip to Kinshasa, their upkeep in the DRC capital where to their
credit Chidzambwa’s men went a little earlier in order to accord themselves
enough time to settle down, get down to some hard work and still have occasion
to recover.
“I think when I came in (December 2015) there was a crisis
which you are all well aware of and I sort of came in as a crisis manager.
“We had to get rid of the negativity that had become the
order of the day, there was no day that would pass without the media reporting
on the negativity that was prevalent in the game.
“I am doing the best I can with the team that I have and we
are not going to look back, we just want to continue to achieve more,’’
Chiyangwa said.
World soccer governing body FIFA have also restored
confidence in ZIFA and have resumed release of tranches of FIFA Forward Funds
upon presentation of audited accounts and budgets.
Chiyangwa admitted, however, that ZIFA still needed to
improve on game management with the Warriors night match against the Leopards
which raked in just over $78 000 providing them some harsh lessons from the
problems encountered during that match.
ZIFA also apologised to the fans who ensured a frustrating
night at the turnstiles with Chiyangwa indicating that the future solution lies
in securing machines that would scan out any fake tickets.
“Zimbabwe Football Association would like to express
sincere gratitude to all supporters who watched the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations
qualifier match between the Warriors and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
on Tuesday night. We are humbled by your support. A total of 13 090 fans paid to watch the
match and we collected a gross amount of $78 669,00. However, it is the organising committee’s
contention that approximately over 30 000 were at the National Sports Stadium
to watch the match.
“The Association regrets the unfortunate crowd trouble and
stampede which occurred at some entry points. We are very thankful that no life
was lost.
“The match organisation committee which comprises of all
relevant stakeholders met on Friday, the 19th of October to introspect on what
went wrong and to proffer solutions going into the future.
“We would like to inform our beloved fans that gates were
opened at 4pm, well ahead of the 7pm kick-off.
Twenty-one (21) gates were opened out of the thirty (30) gates because
the other nine (9) were not functioning,’’ ZIFA said in a statement.
But it is the bigger picture of the achievements that the
national teams have recorded that Chiyangwa, who also dramatically rose to
become the COSAFA president and a member of the CAF executive committee,
believes even their biggest critics and detractors, needed to respect them.
Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment