So far the repercussions of SRC’s action have shown that no one of note was ever consulted.
Outspoken Bulawayo Chiefs FC called the consequence ‘witchcraft” after being left to travel expensively to Mutare for a match that would not take place after suspended ZIFA board pulled plug on match officials.
By GOODWILL ZUNIDZA, Harare
Zimbabwe football is back to another indefinite lock-down mode following the irrational suspension of the Zifa board by the Sport & Recreation Commission.
The effect of the suspension goes deeper than what the SRC chairman Gerald Mlotshwa intended, as we have already seen referees withdraw their services from Premier Soccer League fixtures.
Mlotshwa announced at a press conference on Tuesday that the Felton Kamambo-led administration had been dissolved for, among other accusations, gross mismanagement of the game
SRC’s observation was accurate but their timing was mistaken.
Their action comes less than two months before the Warriors were due to participate at the African Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon, a chance which in all reality has now been blown away.
Fifa statues dealing with such matters are unequivocal and without bias or favour. No third party interference will be entertained in football.
There are limitless avenues football stakeholders expected SRC to walk through in disciplining the errant Zifa leadership but one of them was certainly not a suspension on the eve of a major tournament which never comes easy to qualify for.
The imminent Fifa ban on Zimbabwe’s international assignments will also rule out the national boys’ and girls’ teams from traveling to Lesotho and South Africa for the Cosafa and African Union Region 5 Games later this year.
The Mighty Warriors are also now out of the African Women’s Championships for which they had made it to the next round.
Without a shred of evidence, Mlotshwa claimed the SRC decision was borne out of “extensive consultations” yet there cannot have been any football stakeholder who would give a nod to any egoistic behaviour on the part of SRC.
For starters, the Mighty Warriors who Mlotshwa self-righteously believes he is protecting from ill-treatment will be the most disappointed by SRC’s rash decision as they were looking forward to their journey even under the current conditions of camping at the Zifa Village, albeit hoping for improved sanitation at the site.
SRC also laid sexual harassment charges against Zifa, something that Mlotshwa as a lawyer knows is best handled by police.
With the Zifa elections just three months away there certainly was no need to rock the boat for the mere goal of scoring some cheap power points.
So far the repercussions of SRC’s action have shown that no one of note was ever consulted.
Outspoken Bulawayo Chiefs FC called the move ‘witchcraft” after being left to travel expensively to Mutare for a match that would not take place due to the SRC ban.
Fans at five different venues across the country had already parted with their hard-earned US$10 to gain entry and are now wincing with no refund in sight.
Clearly there was no consultation to talk of that was ever done by the SRC except among themselves.
In fact any consultant would have reminded Mlothswa of his cricket climbdown in 2019 when a similar attempted stunt at the Zimbabwe Cricket board brought him huge embarrassment after ICC suspended funding to Zimbabwe and banned national teams from international competition.
In the wake of the backlash that ensued Mlotshwa was forced to eat humble pie and reinstate Tawengwa Mukuhlani and his board but never apologized for the damage that he had wrought.
Unwisely, the SRC is showing it did not learn its lesson and continues to use the same tattered script that has failed it before.
If the SRC was genuine in wanting to clean Zimbabwe football, Mlotshwa should have asked Fifa to appoint a normalization committee pending the February 2022 elections thereby staving off the procedural Fifa ban.
But as it is, by committing yet another blunder so close to the last one, Mlotshwa has opted to put his own job on the line.
