Football issues should be resolved in sports corridors

Lovemore Dube, [email protected]

FORMER Zifa president Vincent Pamire has called on football matters to be resolved within sports corridors.

Pamire said genuine football people have no business taking matters to the courts.

Pamire made this call after Walter Magaya and another aspiring presidential candidate Themba Mliswa turned to the courts following their disqualification from taking part in the Zifa elections.

Magaya’s case was heard in Harare and deferred to tomorrow while Mliswa’s which was before Justice Nduna at the Bulawayo High Court on Tuesday failed to take off as Zifa lawyers were at the Harare court.

While Magaya and Mliswa opted for the High Court, Gift Banda who aspires to be the next Zifa vice-president and presidential candidate Benjani Mwaruwari took their case up with the Court of Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland.

Banda and Mwaruwari’s move was right as per the electoral code whose Article 85.9 dictates that all disputes must be resolved by CAS.

“Football matters must not be taken to the courts. Soccer has its own grievance pathways that have to be explored. We should never resort to the courts when it is clear which way to go towards conflict resolution in football,” said Pamire.

Pamire said those with guts to take matters to court are not football family members.

“Many of those who take matters to court do not care about football, they do it because if they are sacked or banned, they won’t lose anything. Football has its ways and those have to be respected,” said Pamire.

He emphasised that Fifa statutes should always be followed.

Pamire conceded that football laws at times are in variance with national judicial features but at the end of the day soccer must stay sport.

Meanwhile aspiring Zifa board member, Alois Bunjira, has urged councillors to elect candidates they think are the best for Zimbabwean football.

The CAPS United legend and sees the upcoming elections as “a perfect opportunity” for the country to “start afresh.”

Zimbabwean football has been under a Fifa appointed Normalisation Committee since July 2023, when the world governing body lifted a 17-month ban on Zifa, that was caused by a cocktail of factors including Government interference.

The Normalisation Committee, which is headed by former Dynamos chairman Lincoln Mutasa, steps down after the January 25 election.

Bunjira, is one of the over 30 candidates vying for the six board member positions.

A former Mamelodi Sundowns and Zimbabwe national team player, Bunjira says he is not getting into the race because he is a former star footballer, but because of what he believes he can bring into football.

The 49-year-old rose through the ranks as a footballer and founded an academy called Albun when he retired.

He grew up in Zengeza, Chitungwiza, where he played junior football before he joined Wieslaw Grabowski’s Darry T.

Bunjira also played for the now defunct Blackpool before he joined Harare giants CAPS United.

After winning the Premier Soccer League championship with Makepekepe in 1996, the year he also won the Golden Boot, Bunjira crossed the Limpopo River into South Africa where he turned out for several clubs.

In South Africa he played for Bidvest Wits, Mamelodi Sundowns and Jomo Cosmos.

Bunjira was also part of the Warriors squad at their maiden African Cup of Nations finals in 2004.
“It has been a while since we last saw former footballers trying to get into Zifa leadership positions.

“Being a former footballer is an advantage, it has given me a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience.

“I’ve lived it, I’ve played football from a very young age and I know the process.

“I’ve gone through a lot of different administrations in different countries in Zimbabwe, South Africa, America and Europe,” said Bunjira.

The former Sundowns star wants to turn back the hands of time, if elected into office.

He wants to reintroduce a sound junior football development structure.

“The number one problem we have in Zimbabwean football at the moment is the lack of a proper structure.

“We have dismantled the whole football and that needs to be restored.”

Bunjira actually thinks commercialisation of Zifa should be done after restoration of proper structures.

“I’ve heard people talking about commercialisation and everything. Yes. Indeed, football needs to be commercialised, but not before we restructure and put the structures back in place.

“We need to see kids playing football again. We need to see primary schools playing football again.

“We need to see juniors playing from area zones, districts and provinces.

“We need to have a proper tertiary football league. You know what, we have a lot of academics who are good at football. We have lost so much talent through education.

“Our culture is that we focus too much on school at the expense of sport,” said Bunjira.

He added: “In that vein, it is prudent for all Premier Soccer League and Division One teams to have junior teams.

“I played junior football for an Area Zone team called Hotspurs in Chitungwiza.

“The likes of Lloyd Mutasa and Ralph Kawondera won national junior tournaments with Division Four teams like Kunaka Trading Stores (KTS) in Chitungwiza.”

Bunjira squares up against some big names in football administration including Sweeney Mushonga, Gilbert Saika, Davison Muchena, Andrew Tapela and Modern Ngwenya.

Simba Bhora director Brighton Ushendibaba, long-time women’s football benefactor Lewis Muzhara and Dutch Academy director Kudzai Kadzombe are also contesting for the board member positions.
Ex-footballers Walter Musanhu, Harlington Shereni and Terrence Malunga are also in the race.