HARARE - Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) CEO Jonathan Mashingaidze is in the eye of a storm after stunning revelations that he unilaterally appointed a new technical director for the association without board approval.
Mashingaidze appointed Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe as the new Zifa technical director to Nelson Matongorere, who was relieved of his duties early this year after falling out with the Zifa board following the Fifa Ballon d’Or voting scandal.
However, Jongwe’s appointment has created a storm after it emerged that the board did not grant its approval, as should be the case in such key appointments.
Mashingaidze is alleged to have usurped the board’s powers by making the unilateral decision without their knowledge.
Although, Mashingaidze tried to keep the appointment under wraps, Jongwe was one of the Zifa employees that attended an induction course held at the Zifa Village on Tuesday which blew his cover.
“I can confirm that the Zimbabwe Football Association will be having a substantive technical director and the name will be made public after May 1st,” Mashingaidze told reporters on Tuesday.
“In terms of criteria, we were guided by Fifa in terms of selecting the person and we looked at the technical skills, the academic qualifications, the football-related experience and above all the ability to interact with Fifa, Caf and Cosafa in planning and reporting.
“The nation shall be informed of the new technical director as of May the 1st. The board shall be informed of who the new TD will be. We had a panel that even had one board member being involved as a panellist.
“So we now believe that the person who is going to take over as our new technical director will be able to drive our development portfolio.”
Meanwhile, the Zifa board is also not pleased with the way Mashingaidze handled the contract renewal talks with Warriors coach Ian Gorowa.
According to sources close to the negotiations, Gorowa dithered in agreeing to a renewal due to the way Mashingaidze constantly changed goal posts during the discussions.
Mashingaidze’s conduct in recent months has come under the spotlight after his public spats with Gorowa in the media.
The Warriors’ coach labelled Mashingaidze a ‘lair’ for the way he continually re-engaged on agreed upon commitments.
Gorowa was also disappointed with the way the Zifa CEO handled the negotiations with apparel manufacturer Umbro, who entered into a short term deal to kit the Warriors for the African Nations Championships in South Africa earlier this year.