ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya was damned on Monday after a probe into match fixing allegations against the Zimbabwe national soccer team found she was the “core central point” in the scam which involved referees, players and journalists.
ZIFA board member Ndumiso Gumede was assigned to lead a probe into an unsanctioned trip by the Warriors to Thailand and Malaysia in December last year. On the trip, Zimbabwe lost 3-0 to Thailand; beat the Malaysian champions Selangor 3-0 before suffering a 6-0 drubbing by Syria. In sensational revelations which will send tremours in the world of football, the ZIFA Board of Enquiry found:
- a Malaysian betting syndicate paid Zimbabwe players US$1,500 each to lose by a pre-agreed score-line.
- a member of the syndicate sat on the Zimbabwe bench and gave instructions when to concede goals.
- ZIFA programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana received “a bunch of US dollars” from a representative of the syndicate.
- players feared for their lives when a representative of the betting syndicate claimed they had cost him US$1 million after losing the first game 3-0 instead of 1-0.
- Rushwaya was in on the scam.
- the match-fixing may have been going on for three years, starting with the 2007 Merdeka Cup held to commemorate Malaysian National Day.
- Method Mwanjali, tipped to be the new national team captain after Benjani Mwaruwari stood down, negotiated payments with the betting syndicate.
- an agent of the syndicate was at the Warriors’ camp ahead of a friendly match with Japan just before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa in June.
- most of the players involved in the corruption “now pose a big problem” for the national team.
Rushwaya and Musavengana are already suspended over the controversial trip to Thailand at the end of December last year. Gumede’s committee said the trip was not sanctioned by the ZIFA Council and the Sports and Recreation Commission but had been arranged by Rushwaya and Musavengana.
But in submissions before Gumede’s probe team, the two officials traded accusations, with Rushwaya insisting that she had ordered Musavengana not to go ahead with the trip. Musavengana, on the other hand, said he had been asked by the Ministry of Tourism to organise a “holiday” for the national team as a reward for winning the COSAFA Cup.
He claimed to have “filled in” Rushwaya about the plan to take the team to Asia, and the national team coach Sunday Chidzambwa had given him the team verbally. Chidzambwa, however, did not travel. Rushwaya countered, stating that she sent Musavengana a text message on December 22 which said: “The trip has not been sanctioned by ZIFA Council give people (players) back their passports. Mhepo dzasimuka (dust has stirred).” But Gumede said the “mhepo dzasimuka kuno” comment was made in an email by Rushwaya dated December 29, and Musavengana had received it when he was already in Malaysia.
A second e-mail said to have been sent to the Thailand FA declining an invitation by Rushwaya, dated December 25, was actually found to have been doctored. In fact, Gumede said, the e-mail had been sent on December 28 with the team already in Asia, and the date had been changed ostensibly to indemnify Rushwaya of wrong-doing in future disciplinary proceedings. “The Chief Executive Officer (Rushwaya) abetted by commission or omission the match fixing games and she became the core central point for these games,” the report said. “The CEO used or connived with ZIFA employees in these games.”
The report added: “Foreign agents were allowed direct access to the players, individually and also as a team.
“Targeted players were paid handsomely than the innocent ones.”
The report names a Malaysian national Raja Raj as the key instigator of the corruption. “Raja Raj threatened our players for having him lose more than US$1 million by not losing according to instructions. “Our players were exposed to corruption and unethical, unsporting practices officially by allowing Raja to address them more than once during the trip. “Once losing according to instructions, each player was then handsomely paid US$1,000 after the game. They had been given an incentive allowance of US$500 each to lose. “Musavengana instructed everyone not to tell anyone about the trip on December 27, 2010.”
Gumede heard testimony from several players who confirmed the payments. Gunners defender Daniel Vheremu said they feared for their lives. Former CAPS United strike Nyasha Mushekwi, now of Mamelodi Sundowns, said he was so disgusted by the thought of playing a fixed match that he asked to be substituted.
Mwanjali was measured in the information he gave the probe team, confirming only that he was part of the team and had been paid $1,500 as the rest of the team.But the most devastating evidence showing the extent of the corruption came from Chidzambwa’s former deputy and Motor Action coach Joey Antipas. He testified: “We proceeded to Thailand and only to be told that we were playing against Thailand national team on arrival. “The morning before kick-off, we were introduced to Asian gentlemen who told us that we were to lose the game 1-0 after 90 minutes so that we would be paid handsomely. I then immediately suspected them to be betting syndicates. “I queried it, citing the fact that it was difficult to lose a game 1-0, because our players had been off-season but I was told to play to instructions by Mr Jonathan Musavengana. I thereby said that I did not want to get involved.
“During the game there was an Asian guy whom I suspected to be a member of the Asia syndicate who sat on our national team bench and was receiving phone calls and telling the other person on line all what was happening in the field of play.”
After Zimbabwe lost the match 3-0, Antipas said the Asians confronted players claiming they were in the books of another betting syndicate. From Thailand, Zimbabwe travelled to Malaysia where they played the country’s champions Selangor and won 3-0. That match was clean, Antipas said. On December 31, the Warriors were due to clash with Syria and Antipas – who was assisted by the technical team of assistant coach Emmanuel Nyahuma, fitness trainer Thomson Matende, a medic named only as Sachikonye, and physio Lloyd Maungwa -- said the Asians re-emerged with new demands.
They wanted Zimbabwe to lose 6-0, but the players, who had not been paid for the Thailand game, refused to play the match until they were each paid US$500 enticements. Antipas said: “I once again did not get involved in the selection of the team. I recused myself from team selection and the team briefing. Mr Jonathan Musavengana was directing operations from the bench while receiving calls from the Asian syndicate.
“Whenever he received a call, he would stand up from the bench and dish out instructions to concede goals and that game was duly lost 6-0.
“At the airport the players were paid US$1,000 each after they had met one member of the syndicate. A bunch of US dollars was also given to Musavengana as ZIFA’s share. “To conclude, I would say my hands received dirty money due to being forced into these games of illegal betting by Mr Jonathan Musavengana.”
Vheremu said of the Thailand game: “… as a team we agreed without knowing that it wasn’t just a friendly match but it had conditions. When they told us the conditions, we disagreed with their conditions because they were not good to us. They wanted us to just play without scoring goals, which is difficult. “But Musavengana persuaded us to play. We lost 3-0, which was not the result they wanted. They wanted us to draw 0-0 or lose 1-0. “So they were furious. We were afraid because he (Asian gentlemen who was part of betting syndicate) said he lost lots of money.“So in order for him to recover his money he arranged two games for us. We then went to Malaysia to play against Syria. The condition was to lose 6-0.
“We disagreed but we were afraid because the guy wanted to recover his money. So we played and lost 6-0 and we were given US$1,000 each for that match at the airport, then we came back to Zimbabwe. “Prior to the game we were told to lose the game 6-0 by Musavengana and Ruj (Asian) and because of fear we lost by that margin.” Mushekwi said just before a hastily-organised match on June 10 against Japan, he had seen one of the betting syndicate men from Malaysia around the team's camp. The match, used by the Japanese to prepare for the World Cup, ended in a 0-0 stalemate. The report said some of the Asian money found its way back to Rushwaya “but never got into the ZIFA coffers.”
The probe team concluded: “The media, ZIFA technical staff, referees and office staff were part of the scam. “Most of the players, who ‘tasted’ these monies for losing will now pause a big problem for the national team. They will demand high amounts in terms of appearance fees as they now believe that competing is not important but one can get instant thousands of dollars by just wearing the Zimbabwe jersey.”
A new probe has been launched to investigate Zimbabwe’s results going back to the Merdeka Cup in 2007. “The Merdeka Cup is the biggest source of this scam as people were introduced into this dirty match fixing in that tournament,” the report said. “All the officials and the media personnel who went there immensely benefitted in a big way and that is why they could not stop these Far East games. They just got addicted to the easy rich pickings.”
Gumede noted that they had received little cooperation from some of the individuals involved.
“The Zimbabwe clique of this syndicate is strongly bonded and they will defend and protect each other to the hilt. They will do anything to protect each other at the expense of the beautiful game. This is why one finds even e-mail dates being doctored and paper-trail missing for the Malaysia trip.”
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