The Sunday News
THE Zifa Women Assembly will welcome any outcome of the investigation of the suspension of three Board members by the Sports and Recreation Commission.
Assembly spokeperson Brightwell Kadenge said the suspensions of board chairlady Miriam Sibanda, Benny Mamoche and Edwin Magosvongwe was above board and investigation by the SRC would confirm that.
Media reports quoted Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa as saying he would order the SRC to investigate the suspensions. The Minister also expressed contempt for the chaos rocking women football recently.
Kadenge said issues that were raised leading to the suspension of the trio were genuine and should not be ignored. He said the Assembly was also miffed by the way Sibanda was running women’s football as she seemed to disregard resolutions, while implementing her own decisions.
“I know there are efforts to try and portray our move as politicking in efforts to oust Sibanda but the truth is we are only concerned about the state of women’s football. We have been trying to engage her over a circular she sent which we felt was unreasonable but she ignored us and the issue of funds that were used by the Warriors erupted,” he said.
The matter was referred to the Zifa Disciplinary Committee.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Assembly confirmed that the interim committee is headed by vice-chairperson, Elizabeth Langa with Takundwa Chimundiya, Rosemary Muzvidziwa, Beaullar Msarah and Cecilia Gambe as board members met on Monday at the Zifa Headquarters and resolved to implement a resolution that was made last year to divide the Super League into two pools.
“The interim committee met and resolved to resume the league on 23 May and also approached Zifa to extend the registration period which had expired on 26 March. The window has now been opened from 28 April 2015 up to 31 May 2015. Registration of players will be open during the special window.
“The affiliation and subscription fees have been reduced to $500 as the interim committee factors the financial challenges that faces our Super League Clubs most of them who are community and individually owned teams. The committee forthwith revokes the circular sent by the suspended chair which was largely driven by the need to drive out certain unfavourable teams and also lacked consent of the Assembly,” read the statement.
Kadenge said Pool A would be made up of eight teams from the Southern and Central regions and Masvingo while Pool B will have 12 teams from the Northern and Eastern Regions plus Mwenazwa.
“This is not a new decision being made by the interim committee but they are simply implementing a resolution that was made last year but surprisingly Sibanda did the opposite of what teams had agreed to and maintained a single national league at the financial detriment of the teams.
“We think maybe she wanted to prove she could get the league back but it was a retrogressive move because there were no financial incentives for teams,” he said.
