H-Metro
THE ZIFA Extraordinary General Meeting came and went on Saturday, amid stunning revelations by some of those who were running the suspended board.
Shocking stories of a dysfunctional board, which they claimed had been captured by either one or two men, emerged.
Of course, it’s something we had suspected for quite some time but we didn’t know that the rot was to the level which the board members claimed had become the disorder of the day at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
One board member even claimed suspended ZIFA president, Felton Kamambo, had become some sort of a prisoner in an institution he was supposed to lead but which he never led.
Orders came from elsewhere, claimed the board member, and the poor Kamambo’s responsibility had become one in which he provided the face to the communication.
Inevitably, after all these shocking claims, it was predicted that the ZIFA Councillors would revoke the mandate of a leader they elected, just three years ago, but who never provided the leadership they expected from him.
One gets an impression that Kamambo was probably never their preferred choice but he only happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Why?
Because, in that poll for the ZIFA presidency, it became clear that a significant number of Councillors didn’t want Philip Chiyangwa to continue as their leader.
It then happened that Kamambo was the only challenger and it became a case of eliminating the candidate they didn’t want and replacing him with one they barely wanted simply because he was the only available option.
Even with everything seemingly going for him, because of the wave which wanted to sweep Chiyangwa away, 24 Councillors, representing 40 percent of the electorate, didn’t vote for Kamambo.
The big question, though, remains – what will be the end game of these boardroom battles, will our suspension by FIFA be lifted after the weekend events?
That’s a long shot but what is now clear is that Kamambo and his crew will never return as the leaders of domestic football because, as Cuthbert Dube found out, once the Councillors speak, it’s all over.
Our concern remains the Warriors participation in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers and we believe the time has come for influential people in our country to sit down with Kamambo and advise him accordingly.
It’s time for him to throw in the towel, that’s all it will take for FIFA to lift our suspension, and for the Warriors to play in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers.
The ZIFA lawyer, Chenaimoyo Gumiro, abandoned him and so did about 44 ZIFA Councillors.
Surely, we can’t be a country where the interests of 15 million people, and millions of football players and fans, can have their collective dream held at ransom by just THREE people.
The time for an intervention, for Kamambo to be persuaded to see the light, has come because, as we have seen in the past few months, he is not one who quickly reads the signs.
