The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube Sports Correspondent
FORMER Zimbabwe Women’s Soccer League chairperson and former Zifa Board member Susan Chibizhe has described the chaos that has gripped women’s football where two rival national leagues are currently running as “madness” that would seriously affect the girls more than the administrators. Chibizhe said it was ridiculous that there were two national leagues running concurrently, and the situation would affect the players’ development “big time’’.
She said if the leaders of women football cared about the players they would have sat down and worked out their differences instead of opting for separate leagues.
The suspension of Zimbabwe Women Football chairperson, Miriam Sibanda, who rubbished her suspension, by the ZWF assembly in April precipitated a crisis that led to the split.
Sibanda went on to launch a national league. The interim leadership led by her deputy Elizabeth Langa also initiated a rival league with some top flight clubs.
Chibizhe said the leaders were sacrificing the players instead of developing them.
“What they are doing will simply destroy football because sponsors will not want to be part of such confusion. They are fighting at a time when they should be uniting to bring corporate partners on board, instead they are chasing them away. What will happen if the Langa-led acting executive decides not to call up players from Sibanda’s league for national duty? Who will lose out? It is most certainly the players,” said Chibizhe, whose history in sports administration dates back to 1989.
She said the administrators should swallow their pride, act like mature people, put the interests of the players first, stop politicking and develop the sport.
“They should simply approach each other and fix this mess because football has to be the winner at the end of the day. Female players should not be short-changed because of these fights,” she said.
Chibizhe said it was unfortunate that Zifa was plagued by too much politicking and suspension of officials was not helping in any way.
She said she also once fell foul with the “officialdom” leading to her suspension in 2002 but that had a negative effect on football development.
“At one time I was accused of selecting more players from Bulawayo than other areas for the national team but I was acting in the interest of the nation because at that time Bulawayo had more talented and developed players but because of that background I was crucified.
“I am afraid this is one fate that might befall Langa but she is an able, experienced and competent administrator. She simply needs advisors and assistance in securing corporate sponsors,” said Chibizhe.
She challenged former administrators like herself, Zifa honorary member Cecilia Malunga, Tryphine Nhliziyo and former secretary-general, Eusebia Maseko to come together and see how they could assist in the current impasse. Langa felt there would be no problem in meeting Sibanda but said the ZWF boss was under suspension yet she was continually violating football regulations by running a parallel national League.
“Assembly members met and voted to suspend her (Sibanda) but she will go for a hearing and if found not guilty she will return to her seat. But by violating the suspension she is making things worse for her.
“We took our time and wrote to all clubs including those playing in the other league and we informed them about our league but they ignored us and from our perspective they are in a social league with no recognition hence we might be forced to stop picking players from their teams. What they are doing is destroying the game and the players,” she said.
Langa said they had split their league into two pools, the Northern and Southern sections, with the two top teams from each half expected to meet in the finals for the eventual championship.
“Teams could not travel last year and we decided to have two top leagues. I do not have an enemy in football but these are just issues that need to be dealt with. It would be such a shame if women football was to crumble under our watch,” she said.
Efforts to get a comment from Sibanda were fruitless as her mobile constantly rang unanswered.
