FIFA development officer for Southern Africa Ashford Mamelodi flew into the country last night for a weeklong visit during which he is expected to get an update on Asiagate and the challenges that have emanated against Zifa over the sanctions imposed by the association.<\/p>\n
Mamelodi, who is in the company of Fidelis Banda – a Fifa financial consultant – is also expected to look at progress in the Goal Project and asses Zifa’s troubled finances amid revelations last month by Zifa president Cuthbert Dube that the association was now US$4 million in the red.<\/p>\n
Zifa have for long been trying to secure additional funding from Fifa outside of the world body’s financial assistance programme, which is mainly targeted at completion of Goal Projects.<\/p>\n
The local soccer body has finally gained a lot of ground in the Goal Project with the Zifa Village in Mt Hampden now a very much refurbished place that even housed the Zimbabwe team to the Zone VI Games, currently underway in Lusaka Zambia.<\/p>\n
Zifa will be hoping to convince Zambian, Banda and Mamelodi that they deserve an extra financial injection from Fifa to overcome the crippling challenges they face.<\/p>\n
The Botswana-based Mamelodi is Fifa’s “point man” in the Southern African region and this is his first visit to Zimbabwe since Zifa rolled out a variety of penalties ranging from life to six-month bans on individuals they found guilty in the long dragging Asiagate match-fixing scam.<\/p>\n
As the Fifa development officer for Southern Africa, Ashford Mamelodi arrived in the country, the Zifa board, meeting for a “strategic retreat” ruled out any further extensions on the appeals’ deadline.<\/p>\n
Zifa had set November 30, as the last day for those intending to file appeals against the various penalties slapped on them by the board.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze emerged from their meeting to reveal that the deadline would not be extended.<\/p>\n
Mashingaidze said opening the window period for more appeals could cause further delays to the conclusion of the Asiagate chapter.<\/p>\n
The Zifa secretariat said they had so far only received the appeal fees from former Warriors coach Sunday Chidzambwa, Taurai Mangwiro, Luke Masomere and the national team’s ex-captain Method Mwanjali.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FIFA development officer for Southern Africa Ashford Mamelodi flew into the country last night for a weeklong visit during which he is expected to get an update on Asiagate and the challenges that have emanated against Zifa over the sanctions imposed by the association. Mamelodi, who is in the company of Fidelis Banda – a Fifa financial consultant – is also expected to look at progress in the Goal Project and asses Zifa’s troubled finances amid revelations last month by Zifa president Cuthbert Dube that the association was now US$4 million in the red. Zifa have for long been trying to secure additional funding from Fifa outside of the world body’s financial assistance programme, which is mainly targeted at completion of Goal Projects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n