Sports Reporter
THE new ZIFA chief executive, Yvonne Mapika Manwa, starts her tenure at the national football controlling body TODAY.
She has left the STABILITY of Ngezi Platinum Stars, who are on course to be the first Mashonaland West club to be crowned champions, for the VOLATILITY of ZIFA.
ZIFA haven’t had a substantive CEO since Joseph Mamutse was suspended two years ago before he was swept away by the FIFA hurricane which ended Felton Kamambo’s crippled leadership.
We don’t know whether Manwa will be working from 53 Livingstone Avenue, where the ZIFA headquarters are, or from the house the association are renting in Belvedere.
So, what do we think Manwa should tackle first?
l Ensuring that Warriors coach, Baltemar Brito, secures a work permit to ensure that he can sit on the bench in the two World Cup qualifiers this month.
l The Brazilian gaffer has been working without a work permit, which means that he has been unable to conduct the team’s training sessions in Zimbabwe, and only took charge of the sessions in Botswana.
l Brito has been forced to watch the sessions from the stands and did not conduct even one session when the team held a week-long training camp in Harare recently.
l Ensure that Sikhumbuzo Ndebele, a member of the Normalisation Committee running the association, vacates the cottage, behind the rented house ZIFA are renting, which he has been using as his home whenever he is in Harare.
l It just doesn’t send the right signals for a national association to have one of its leaders using a backyard cottage as his home when reports suggest that they are getting as much as US$6 500 per person, per month, from FIFA.
l She should also clip the wings of Kudzi Chitima, who was appointed the FIFA Forward Programmes Country Manager, because he has been behaving like a rebel without a cause.
l She should also remind him that national team players are not invited for national duty through the use of WhatsApp text messages.
l She should find ways to finalise the issue related to Xolisani Gwesela, Wellington Mpandare and Wilson Mtekede because it has been hanging over ZIFA for some time now.
l Last, but not least, she should remind Lincoln Mutasa, the leader of ZIFA, that this is 2023, and not 1983, and the football environment has changed dramatically from the time he was Dynamos chairman.
Thank you Madam Boss and all the BEST, from your friends at Zimpapers Sport.