Zifa House is not the problem

EDITOR — I read with amusement the story in your paper recently that Zifa was planning to sell its "haunted" 53 Livingstone Avenue headquarters.

Cuthbert Dube, Zifa president, believes Zifa House has become "a cursed place that should soon be vacated and sold."

This is coming from a whole administrator that we understand sits on the board of some companies.

I am sure that Dube, who is said to have had his life saved by some Nigerian "prophet", is taking mysticism rather too far.

The truth of the matter is that football in this country has been failed by the administrators per se not where they stay or work.

The ongoing Tom Saintfiet saga, which started under the very nose of Dube, for example, has nothing to do with Zifa House, no matter how ugly it looks now.

What happened was that the officials, whose very houses could then well be cursed given their blundering, chose to ignore sense and appoint the promising Mapeza.

They then appointed Sainfiet and led him to work without papers, which rightly earned him banishment and subsequent rejection by Immigration authorities.

In the first place, Zifa had "poached" the Belgian gaffer from Namibia.

Were they led by evil spirits?

On the other hand, corruption has gnawed at our football even from Far Eastern encla-ves thousands of kilometres away from Zifa House.

No, Mr Dube it is nothing to do with the place, it is about the persons who have inhabited it. Zimbabwe should have been on top in terms of football were it not for the bungling of Zifa.

We cannot produce another Peter Ndlovu because there simply is no junior policy to nurture young talent.

Our campaign for continental showing is under stress because of poor leadership that is characterised by confusion.

Whereas other countries like South Africa and Nigeria are flaunting their female talent in the game, our team is in the doldrums and we wonder what happened to the energy we had gathered at the turn of the new millenium.

No, Mr Dube, it is not about the Zifa House but its occupants, in their succession.

Let us be rational about it.

A bad administrator blames his office.

Mary Murungu.

Craneborne,

Harare.