Wicknell Chivayo
Dingilizwe Ntuli, Sports Editor
IN the midst of the unravelling and injurious match-fixing scandal, Zimbabwean football is again facing another crisis after Zifa’s benefactor Wicknell Chivayo pulled the plug on his celebrated $1 million sponsorship of the Warriors.
The reasons Chivayo advanced for withdrawing his sponsorship border on frivolity. Firstly he blames a journalist for writing an article informing readers that senior national team coach Callisto Pasuwa has not been paid his salary since penning a three-year $7,000 a month contract two months ago and that he was in rental arrears at the Greendale house he recently moved into.
Chivayo was disparaging in his attack of the journalist for simply writing the truth when he should have vented his anger on Zifa for not paying Pasuwa, since he maintains that he released money for the coach’s payment to the association.
He claimed that intense negative press attention eroded his goodwill towards Zifa, even though it’s public knowledge that Zifa is perfectly capable of eroding goodwill by itself, without any help from the press.
Chivayo’s unprovoked attack on the media, however, also provided some interesting insight into how the present Zifa is being run. It is no secret that Zifa is technically insolvent, surviving only by grace. His outburst only served to show us how the country’s favourite game continues to sink in a morass caused by growing indebtedness and a lack of transparency by Zifa.
Although we all knew that Zifa was in a financial black hole, Chivayo alerted us to the fact that the Zifa administration led by Philip Chiyangwa has done absolutely nothing to set up systems that would restore confidence and credibility that have been deteriorating over the years.
Immediately after being elected Zifa president in December last year, Chiyangwa promised to inject a breath of fresh air into the morale of the national association by providing not only direction, but hope. Chiyangwa has been impressive in his dealings with the media, but the vision he built his campaign on seems to have burnt itself to ashes before it took off.
Four months after coming into office, Zifa’s financial structures continue to rot away with poor transparency and a lack of corporate governance. How does a national association such as Zifa operate without a bank account and hope to lure sponsorship? It’s ridiculous to expect serious sponsors to bankroll the national association when they don’t know how their money will be used.
How does Zifa expect clubs to adopt and implement Fifa’s club licensing, which requires them to operate professionally when structures of the custodians of the local game are in shambles?
Zifa must look at professionalising itself first instead of charging clubs exorbitant amounts to conduct club licensing workshops when the association itself is non-compliant.
Chivayo says he has already availed $600,000 to Zifa from the $1 million package he announced three months ago. Did he give the money in cash, and if so to whom was he handing the money to? To quote Chivayo’s Facebook rant, “to ensure players get their money, you have to be extremely circumspect and discreet otherwise the money will be intercepted and forfeited” because “so many people have writs of execution to attach property or money identified as belonging to Zifa”.
Is this not money laundering when genuine sponsorship money meant for a national association like Zifa is discreetly availed? How then can corruption at Zifa be combated if such large amounts of money are moved and used discreetly? Perhaps that explains why no finance sub-committee exists at Zifa because such an organ can only function properly where there are checks and balances. Maybe Chivayo just fell short of saying his money was being abused and that’s why he has decided to open an escrow account to deposit Pasuwa’s salary.
There certainly is a big stink at Zifa headquarters.
Who then can trust the income and expenditure statements that Zifa has been making public when they’re simple failing to abide by corporate facets such as banking money for accountability purposes.
Without the finance committee, who can vouch that Chivayo really spent $600,000 on Zifa and who can prove that the income and expenditure statement released after the Warriors-Swaziland game was real?
Zifa has shown us what an organisation’s leadership is capable of when it’s obsessed with power at any cost. The national association has incurred tremendous financial losses as a result of arrogance, greed and foolishness from the executive, all the way down to the regions.
We demand financial literacy in the football sector and can no longer continue to ignore the impact financial unwellness has on our game.
People with a clear vision, reputable business acumen and sheer determination are what we now need to run Zifa if our football is to experience any revival.