The Sunday Mail
Sports Editor
IT’S drama all the way as the rigmarole of dissolving Zifa and giving birth to the National Football Association of Zimbabwe unfolds.
Zifa’s creditors are exploring their options with reports suggesting that some have even taken the fight to former association president Cuthbert Dube’s doorstep.
Dube is understood to have guaranteed some of the debts as he desperately sought to keep the recently folded soccer governing body afloat during a disastrous two terms in office.
In dissolving Zifa and setting up NFAZ, the country’s football councillors maintained that the new body had no obligation to settle its predecessor’s debts.
Creditors, who are believed to be owed over US$6 million, are now expected to get their dues from the disposal of Zifa’s assets.
Generous estimates put the value of those assets at just over US$2 million.
As those who are owed by Zifa gnash their teeth, former workers of the association appear headed for a major showdown with Phillip Chiyangwa and his executive.
They feel shortchanged after being asked to apply for positions in NFAZ.On Friday NFAZ vice-president Omega Sibanda described attempts by some of workers to loot gate takings from the Zimbabwe versus Malawi match as criminality which had no place “in this new era”.
Police were called in last Sunday after the former Zifa trio of Fabion Vanganayi, Benjamin Dehwa and Weston Mabhande allegedly took possession of US$22 838, arguing that it would go towards settling salary arrears.
Amid chaotic scenes, former Zifa employees who claim to have gone unpaid for 20 months stormed the cash office demanding their dues.
The melee saw Vanganayi reportedly taking the money home with plans to disburse it among workers the following day.
Stunned by the workers’ stunt, football authorities roped in the police (IR Number 060293).
Police recovered all the money from Vanganayi the following day.
Just three days after that, disgruntled workers are said to have written to Fifa alleging that Chiyangwa and his board were “disregarding football statutes”.
That was the cue the NFAZ board needed to engage the disgruntled former workers.
“Don’t sit here and pretend to love Zimbabwean football. If you really loved Zimbabwean football like you claim to do now why didn’t you write to Fifa telling them that the previous executive was killing association football?
“We know some of you are not happy with the move to dissolve Zifa to create NFAZ but your efforts, such as trying to loot money and writing to Fifa, will not stop this train from moving,” Sibanda reportedly told the meeting.
The NFAZ board member responsible for finance Phillimon Machana, whom the workers accused of reneging on promises to pay them soon after the Warriors last match, also attended the meeting.Machana, sources claim, challenged the workers to repeat their allegation that he misappropriated money generated by the Malawi tie “straight in my face”.
“Some of you circulated an email to journalists alleging all sorts of things. Now here I am with the income and expenditure statement in my hands. Let’s talk,” someone who sounds like Machana can be heard saying in a recording of the meeting.
None of the workers took up Machana on his challenge.
