By Sports Reporter
THE suspended Zifa board members, buoyed by the recent backing from the world football governing body, Fifa have called on the government to institute an open inquiry into the conduct, motive and decisions of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).
Fifa last week ordered the SRC to reinstate the Felton Kamambo-led Zifa board by January 3 or risk having the country being banned from international football, including participation in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Cameroon.
However, the SRC board which is led by President Mnangagwa’s son in law, Gerald Mlotshwa has remained adamant that the Zifa board remains suspended despite their allegations against the football body being thrown out by Fifa due to lack of evidence.
In a five-page statement, the suspended executive committee says it feel vindicated by Fifa’s verdict to throw out the SRC’s allegations against them for lack of evidence.
“The Zifa board believes the Fifa decision did among other things, vindicate the Zifa Executive committee of any wrongdoing contrary to allegations by the SRC in its several publications and given as reasons for them to suspend the board,” the Zifa board said.
“The board therefore reiterates that as was correctly found by FIFA after its intensive engagements and fact finding with both ZIFA and SRC in the past four weeks, no shred of evidence was found or advanced by the SRC to substantiate their numerous allegations which at best are just a witch hunt, persecution and 3rd party interference under the guise of cleansing football.”
The Kamambo led board tore into Mlotshwa, accusing him of being power hungry and bent on destroying football and causing damage to the country.
It said the SRC was “blood thirsty” and must be stopped.
“The Zifa board therefore calls for an open inquiry into the conduct, motive and decisions of this current SRC board, which it believes is anti-development and has acted against national interests. Its actions are tantamount to deliberate sabotage of the sport, persecution of individuals within Zifa by some individuals within SRC, confusion creation and a display of ineptitude in the regulation of sport in our country.”
“The Zifa board therefore sincerely calls on our government not to be misled by the SRC board and urges them to help the nation evade these potential but unnecessary and avoidable sanctions on our beloved game which are being invited by the SRC. We call for urgent intervention by the government to stop this SRC sojourn to destruction on premise which under any circumstances cannot be factually, objectively and legally justified,” the statement reads.
It said allegations by the SRC have so far yielded nothing as they have been exonerated by several courts in Zimbabwe and most recently by Fifa.
