THE MINISTER of Youth, Sports,, Arts and Recreation Kersty Coventry has revealed that the Zimbabwe Football Association has been facing serious challenges in the past few years which crippled the football development.

Coventry made the remarks in parliament during question as answer session.

“It is no secret that ZIFA for the last few years has been facing different challenges and that has been affecting the development of football, the country and that has also been affecting our national players at regional, continental and international levels,” she said.

“These challenges are ranging from poor administration and governance of the body, as well as development of players. The Sports and Recreation Commission is working closely with ZIFA to resolve these challenges but it is important to point out that SRC and Government can only step in to a certain degree, otherwise we will face a ban from FIFA.”

The minister said for the African Cup of Nations, they were many reports in the media. 

“ZIFA supported by the Sport and Recreation Commission and the Ministry of Sport requested His Excellency to appoint a Committee to mobilise funds. That Committee was chaired by Hon. Minister Kazembe Kazembe. That Committee raised and gave ZIFA US$87 000 and Z$3, 5 million to go towards the Warriors AFCON matches,” she said.

“The support of Government towards the Warriors funding and the support from the AFCON Fundraising Committee, the Warriors did not perform to the best of their ability we were eliminated in the Group stages.”

She said the Confederation of African Football dispersed sporting and sporting grants and these grants have not yet been disclosed by ZIFA to the SRC when request. 

“The Senior Men’s National Team from AFCON Campaign was met by disagreements, disputes and triggered the team’s mistrust in the leadership of ZIFA. The Women’s Senior National Team, the Mighty Warriors have faced similar challenges in the preparation and participation for the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics as well as the World Cup. The SRC alarmed by the state of affairs requested ZIFA to give a detailed report on how they manage the National Teams’ preparation and participation in the AFCON campaign and the Olympic qualifiers, and to date ZIFA has not submitted any report,” Coventry said..

“The SRC recommended for the disciplinary of ZIFA in terms of Section 30 of the SRC Act and in turn ZIFA wrote to FIFA to dissolve and set up a Normalisation Committee. FIFA rejected what the SRC was recommending and highlighted that if the SRC went forward with the Normalisation Committee the Government would be tamed as interfering and as the FIFA statutes state, Zimbabwe would then be banned.”

She said ZIFA’s debt and overhanging financial status – ZIFA’S legacy debt is around US$8 million and this definitely affecting the administration and operation of the federation.

“Recommendations – The SRC should convene capacity development programmes targeting the ZIFA fraternity. ZIFA should work fully to benefit from the FIFA projects, funding, support infrastructural development, FIFA forward projects and ZIFA should start been more transparent,” she said.

“If you will allow me, I will give an update on the refurbishment of the football stadia.”