Online Reporter
Sunday Sport with Bra Shakes
ZIFA opened a new chapter with the election of Nqobile Magwizi as president yesterday.
He looks smarter and sharper, and seemed to want it more than everyone else.
His daily prime time news adverts on TV, which were admittedly well packaged, created a climate of opinion that he could be the best person for the job.
If there were councillors who were still not decided on the candidate to vote for by yesterday morning, they would surely have made up their mind when Sir Wicknell put his big finger on the scale by conditionally pledging to shell out an eye-watering and jaw-dropping US$10 million sponsorship to develop local football in the event that Magwizi won.
However controversial this gesture might have been, especially coming as it did just hours before the election, it was not at all a big deal for those who know Wicknell.
It was a case of Wicknell being Wicknell — a maverick plutocrat doing as they please at the spur of the moment.
By landing the presidency, Magwizi is now guaranteed a tidy pay packet of US$50 000 annually.
He will also be going to see Victor to collect a “brand-new 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 300 Series worth US$200 000”.
Most importantly, his vision and proposed projects will be given wings to fly, courtesy of the windfall that has been pledged by Wicknell.
And he might also probably even be heading to Rabat, Morocco, for the AFCON draw that is pencilled in for tomorrow.
All this might be music to the ears, but this is not what Magwizi and his two vice presidents — Kenny Ndebele and Loveness Mukura (quite solid administrators, if you ask Bra Shakes) — need right now.
What they need is a big broom to sweep the mess that had accumulated at ZIFA House for the past decades.
Encouragingly, all the candidates who were vying for the top post were agreed that one of the biggest problems, if not the biggest problem, at the association was its brand and reputation, which currently stinks to high heaven. This has been the reason local football has been failing to attract sponsors and lacking goodwill. ZIFA needs both cleaning and cleansing.
Its culture also needs to change.
Much of the criticism levelled against Magwizi centred on his tag as an outsider, who was not familiar with the inner workings of the association, but ironically, this could work to his advantage.
What was needed was an outsider who would reinvent the culture of the association and change the way things are done.
The swamp at ZIFA needs to be drained.
And this is precisely the reason Bra Shakes was happy that those dreary-looking we-know-it-all ZIFA types did not make it into the ZIFA board.
Despite the creature comforts that come with his new job, Bra Shakes does not envy Magwizi.
His task is onerous.
The issue of stadia has to be attended to, grassroots football development needs to be resuscitated, women football deserves more investment and the sport, as a multibillionaire industry, urgently has to be professionalised.
Let the work begin.
Until next time.
Peace!
Yours Sincerely,
Bra Shakes.
