Three Face Disqualification From ZIFA Elections

The ZIFA presidential elections will be held on March 27.

According to article in the amended ZIFA constitution anyone who was suspended from football should first be involved in football activities at a lower level before taking up senior posts in the associations. It says the candidates should go for “rehabilitation” before they can assume top posts in football.

This means that the controversial Harare City Council spokesperson Gwindi will not be allowed to stand in the elections. Gwindi the former Premier Soccer League secretary general was banned in 1998 for bringing football into disrupte and saved his sentence which ended a year ago.

Zimunya was also suspended from taking part in all football activities in 2004 together with Benedict Moyo the former Mighty Warriors coach for challenging the authority of the then Rafik Khan led ZIFA Board. The ban was endorsed by world football body FIFA before it was lifted last year. The trio have indicated that they would contest the ZIFA elections.

They are challenging incumbent Wellington Nyatanga for the ZIFA presidency. The other candidates in the race are Premier Soccer League chairman, Tapiwa Matangaidze and former CAPS United legend Charlie Jones. Premier Service Medical Aid Society group chief executive officer Cuthbert Elkana Dube said he was still considering to decide whether to stand in the elections which he dubbed the ‘dirtiest in the world”. Dube was defeated by Nyatanga in 2004.

Meanwhile the world football body FIFA hav expressed satisfaction with the Zifa constitution, which, however, is still to be registered with the Sport and Recreation Commission.

But Fifa monday cleared their part when they expressed satisfaction with the amendments that were done at the Zifa assembly’s extraordinary meeting in Harare on December 19 which included the formation of a fourth region — the Central Region.

Fifa director of Legal affairs Marco Villiger and Fabien Frei head of corporate legal yesterday wrote to Zifa chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya acknowledging and expressing satisfaction with the amended constitution.

The Fifa pair highlighted the articles, which the world body is still not happy with and gave recommendations on those contentious articles.