ZIFA (Ndebeles) Must Go; Chris Sambo

ZIFA BOARD MUST GO - Chris Sambo
[Source: REAL SOCCER]
•Chris Sambo says tribal card has killed
Zimbabwe's football.
• Corruption at ZIFA stinks like an unwashed
undergarment.
Chris Sambo, former Chief Executive Officer of the then Premier Soccer League has breathed fire at the careless and chaotic failure of the Warriors to qualify for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in South Africa at the hands of Angola's Palancas Nigra, arguing that the Cuthbert Dube-led administration has not only shamed the nation but has become the undertaker of Zimbabwe's football, the Real Soccer Investigating Unit had a tet-a-tet interview last night.
Said Sambo, spewing out venom: "The real enemy of Zimbabwe's football is the current ZIFA administration. Look, we will never go anywhere as long as we wield a tribal card to run our football in Zimbabwe. The current ZIFA and PSL organs are structured in such a way that they are only run on tribal lines and look what has happened in Angola."
Sambo queried earlier pronouncements by head coach Rahman Gumbo that Ndebeles were better coaches than Shonas, adding "Shonas are running politics while we are running football" at Zimcafe as indicators that appointments into positions of leadership in Zimbabwe's soccer were
not being done on merit.
"The ZIFA board is being headed by Cuthbert Dube (Ndebele), his deputy Ndumiso Gumede (Ndebele) and another defacto Vice President Benedict Moyo (Ndebele). Similarly, the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League is being run by Kenny Ndebele (CEO - Ndebele). The Warriors failed technical team is being headed by Rahman Gumbo (Ndebele by contamination), deputy coach Peter Ndlovu (Ndebele) and face-saver deputy David Yogi Mandigora (Shona)," said Sambo. "Now the dejected nation is saying the team (Warriors) of Ndebeles has been defeated and what have they to say. They started it and they must face the music of blame from this soccer crazy nation."
He queried why Rahman Gumbo was entrusted with the head coach position of the warriors yet he had been relieved of his duties by F C Platinum, saying nepotism at ZIFA is stinking like an unwashed undergarment.
Sambo said that the demon that also needs to be exorcised from ZIFA is lack of transparency, coupled with ignorance in running football in Zimbabwe.
"ZIFA's purpoted all-stakeholders conference on 29 September 2012 in Harare was only attended by Education, Sports and Culture Minister David Coltart, his deputy Lazarus Dokora, ZIFA board and a few notable figures while former football administrators, coaches, critical media, players, sponsors, the corporate world and other key stakeholders were excluded. It was apparent that nothing meaningful was going to come out of that conference," said Sambo.
Sambo said that the solution to the healing of Zimbabwe's football is in the resolutions of the Paddington Garwe inquiry of 1996 that recommended that 50% of the voters in the ZIFA elections must come from PSL clubs.
Sambo queried that 22 noble resolutions of the Garwe inquiry were not implemented at all, arguing that the current voting structure of ZIFA elections accommodates illiterate councilors who ushered in the current incompetent ZIFA board that has taken almost four years working on the Asiagate probe that back-fired in Angola, with Manucho's double as payback.
The Garwe inquiry was attended by the late then president Canaan Banana, among other notable figures.
Research has established that the committee that was set up to demand the implementation of the Garwe report was eventually banned by the Ndumiso Gumede administration.
With the flipside of the tussle, the said committee that comprised Chris Sambo, Lloyd Hove (chairman) and Leslie Gwindi (former Dynamos chairman) resisted the suspension.
In 2002, another all stakeholders conference – a sequel of the first one - to find solutions to the ailing Zimbabwean football was held at Hunyani Hills but the findings and proposals are gathering dust in unknown archives.
Sambo's assertions have come at a time there are unconfirmed reports that ZIFA is mulling plans to suspend former Warriors coach Norman Mapeza for life on grounds Asiagate, the development Chris (Sambo) said would be a grave mistake that is likely to attract mutiny in this country.
"If anything, it is the ZIFA board that must resign for it has failed the nation in a very dangerous way…," said Sambo.
Sambo said the only way to cure our football is to detribalize soccer in this country and the government must set up a stand-alone ministry of sports.
The much-hipped Warriors- Palancas Nigra tie had countless escapades even outside the field of play.
Tendai Zhakata, troubled president of the Friends of the Warriors and his squad of supporters were excluded from the trip to Angola, with a not-so-clean member of the Mzansi 90, Simeon Jamanda hijacking the trip and its fundraising processes as if he was the one who had mooted the I
By Sbue
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