Inside sport: Fifa have just gone too far

Sport
Zifa normalisation committee chairperson Lincoln Mutasa

Surely, Caf and Fifa, have gone a little bit too far and have belittled our football intelligence by telling us that we are not capable - on our own- of deciding who our national team coach should be.

Because of 25 pieces of silver, we have had Caf and Fifa representatives coming to Zimbabwe to interview a coach who will be ours for the next two years and not theirs or the countries they come from.

This simply means that we are not appointing a coach of our choice but they are appointing for us a coach of their choice because they are the ones with the money.

What is even more disturbing is that Fifa already had their man before even the final list of candidates had been whittled down to five and what we are waiting for is just confirmation.

Honestly, will that coach respect the Zimbabwean football leaders when he surely knows that he was not appointed by Zimbabwe or the NC, but by Caf and Fifa.

What we know for sure is that Fifa will rush to take credit when the coach succeeds but throw the buck to Lincoln Mutasa and his crew should the coach be another Zdravko Logarusic.

The question is: What exactly does Fifa know about our football environment, our players, and our team, that they had to involve themselves in the selection of the Zimbabwean coach ?

Are Caf and Fifa telling us that Zimbabwean football has sunk so low that it no longer has people capable of interviewing and selecting a coach good enough for the Warriors based on the salary on the table.

What was wrong with Zimbabwe coming up with its own technical committee and deciding on who gets the job rather than fly strangers from Zurich and Cairo and pay them huge sums of money and for that matter from the Zimbabwean grant.

What we would have expected was for Fifa to tell us how much they are prepared to gush out in terms of the coach's salary then we find our man who fits that bracket.

Another question is: Have Caf and Fifa ever done this elsewhere or that they are taking advantage that Zimbabwe is desperate for their funding and as such they can do whatever they want with our football?

We know for sure that Kenya have had more than two Normalisation Committees installed by Fifa but never at one time did we hear of Fifa dictating on whom they had to appoint as their national team coach.

Nigeria too have had a normalisation committee or normalisation committees set up in their country but during that period the committees ran their affairs freely and without anybody pulling the strings.

What then is it with Zimbabwe that Fifa finds so fascinating that they want to involve themselves in every decision or move made in the Zimbabwean game?

Or, is it that they, Fifa, are doubting the NC they themselves appointed that they could repeat the same comical coaching appointments that characterised their one-year reign at Zifa.

Surely if Caf and Fifa can go as far as belittling us this way, what more, are they capable of doing next knowing that Mutasa and company will just nod their heads in approval.

We at one time doubted that Fifa was directly running our game but the coaching story tells us that we were taken for a ride and Fifa are the in-thing and not Mutasa and Friends.

The only way we can get ourselves out of the shackles we are tightened in is to hold Zifa elections and install a president and a board that will make its own decisions. Without that, we will continue to be remote controlled by Fifa.

Mutasa has been told over and over again that he has failed to steer the Zimbabwean football ship and the best he should do to save himself from further embarrassment is to speed up the election process. We hope the NC supremo is listening.

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