Dube, Coltart hail football indaba

Zifa boss Cuthbert Dube has hailed the historic football meeting which brought together various stakeholders in an effort to find lasting solutions to the perennial problems dogging the country’s biggest sport. The high-profile indaba brought together representatives from the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture led by David Coltart, the Sports and Recreation Commission, Zifa and the corporate world.

During the meeting, stakeholders made various recommendations and resolutions on various issues which, according to Coltart, would be refined and compiled into a document to be tabled to Cabinet for endorsement.

The issues covered included football development, investment and infrastructure, gate takings and levies, the new Zifa constitution, the revival of the Warriors Trust and the conclusion of the investigation into the Asiagate match-fixing scandal.

“We had a very good meeting and I want to thank the ministry for organising this indaba because it’s something that had been long overdue. The commitment that has come from government is a pleasing development in the circles of Zifa and football as a whole,” Dube said.

“The attendance was a very good barometer of the interest from the corporate world in football. They have came for the indaba at a time when I had my own reservations as I thought they would not be interested because of the Asiagate scandal, but they came in their numbers which is very pleasing. We have also managed to build bridges in terms of our procedural communication channels between Zifa, the ministry and the sports commission.”

Dube said one of the resolutions of the indaba was to re-establish the Warriors Trust so that Zifa would not solely rely on the government for funding “We also resolved to re-establish the Warriors Trust. You will remember that during the days of the late Vice-President Joseph Msika, he initiated this and it worked very well. Now we want to re-establish it and we will consult and get advice from the ministry in terms of how it should be done because we need to have transparency and accountability of whatever comes out of this,” said Dube.

Coltart said his ministry was aware of the significance of the upcoming away tie against Angola and were looking to have funding available for the match.

“We have also come up with a broad resolution that is going to be put to Cabinet so that support be narrowed down to the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors and that we define government support for the two teams, for example, to the World Cup, Olympics, Afcon and possibly Cosafa and how we can have better accountability in that regard.”

Coltart said the government was committed to ensuring that sport becomes an integral part of the sports curricular.

“We did have an extensive discussion on the issue and what was raised goes back to the Nziramasanga Commission of Inquiry into Education of 1999 which stated that the current education system was far too academically oriented,” said Coltart