A ZIFA hearing into allegations of match fixing levelled against the association’s suspended CEO Henrietta Rushwaya was postponed to September 1 on Tuesday after her lawyers asked for more time to study the charges.
ZIFA released the charges after completing investigations into betting, bribery and corruption allegations against Rushwaya relating to the Zimbabwe national team’s tour of Malaysia in December last year.
The Warriors lost 6-0 to Syria and 3-0 to Thailand during the mini-tournament which was not sanctioned by ZIFA or the Sport and Recreation Commission.
A ZIFA probe committee chaired by the federation’s vice president Ndumiso Gumede alleged Tuesday that the suspended programmes officer, Jonathan
Musavengana, under Rushwaya's direct supervision arranged the unauthorised trip to Malaysia for an Asian betting syndicate.
"The team was paid to lose ... to the obvious prejudice of the reputation of Zimbabwe as a soccer playing nation and its ranking with the world soccer body FIFA," ZIFA said.
Rushwaya is also in the dock for allegedly conspiring to send Premier League club Monomotapa to play Malaysia in an elaborate fraud in which they masqueraded as members of the genuine national squad. The Malaysian FA said Rushwaya penned a letter claiming Monomotapa were in fact the national team.
Monomotapa played two friendly matches, losing to the host nation 4-0 and 1-0.
ZIFA also says that without authority, Rushwaya signed a deal with a Swiss-based sports marketing company Kentaro A.G to bring the Brazil team to Harare for a high-profile friendly international against the Warriors two days before the opening of the World Cup in neighbouring South Africa in June.
Brazil won the match 3-0 but, according to the federation, it earned Zimbabwe nothing because the Brazilians demanded an appearance fee and under the deal, the Swiss company had been pledged all the gate takings of roughly US$650,000 at the 50,000-seat National Sports Stadium in Harare.
Rushwaya denies wrongdoing.
Criminal charges could be lodged based on the findings of the hearing, which is effectively a trial before the federation's board members with powers only to fire her and demand a police prosecution before a court.