Story by Lawrence Trusida, Sports Editor
WHAT was hoped to be a watershed convocation turned out to be a sail-through meeting after the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Congress unanimously adopted a new constitution on a 48-8 vote at an Annual General Meeting held in Harare this Friday.
The new constitution will be used to hold ZIFA board elections and will come into effect once it is registered with the Sports and Recreation Commission.
World football governing body, FIFA, Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Confederation of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) were all present in the ordinary congress.
The draft constitution entails that PSL clubs, Women Premier Soccer League clubs, Division One clubs, National Association of Primary Heads and their secondary counterparts together with tertiary institutions form the ZIFA Congress.
The new constitution also makes it a requirement for candidates vying for ZIFA presidency or vice presidency to have a minimum of five Ordinary Level passes and have at least five years of experience in running football affairs.
ZIFA Normalisation Committee’s chairperson, Lincoln Mutasa said, “The requirement is not leaving anyone behind, remember the head of the Football Association has an administrative role and will be consistently communicating with FIFA and CAF, so that requires a certain level of ability to communicate and it is Congress who decided that this is the best way forward.”
FIFA are satisfied with the unity that is now prevailing in Zimbabwean football.
“We are happy now there is unity and people are focused in one direction it seems now everyone wants Zimbabwe to move forward and this is only healthy for the game in the country and we hope that this can continue so that football in this country reaches its full potential,” said FIFA head of development programmes-Africa, Solomon Mudege
The adoption of the new constitution is also a step towards the fulfilment of the Normalisation Committee’s mandate, and now it is only left with conducting elections and handing over power to the new board.
With the constitution hurdle out of the way, the next step is the nomination of candidates for the ZIFA presidency and vice-presidency set for the 14th of November, while the elections have been tentatively set for the 18th of January next year.
