HARARE - Cuthbert Dube, the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) president, this week revealed his board will swiftly move to bring an end to the Asigate saga.
Addressing journalists at an induction course at the Zifa Village, Dube admitted his previous board spent more time on Asiagate at the expense of helping the game to flourish.
Dube was re-elected as the Zifa president during the March 29 poll where he convincingly beat the challenge of ex-Zifa chairman Trevor David Caresle-Juul, Leslie Gwindi, and Nigel Munyati.
The four board new members, who were elected are Chicken Inn secretary-general Tavengwa Hara, Harare businessman Bernard Gwarada, former Warriors defender John Phiri and former Eastern Region chairman Fungai Chihuri.
“We spent a lot of time on Asiagate,” Dube said. “We should bring this to an end. I can assure you it will come to an end soon. The strategic meeting set for next month should formulate the turnaround of the game.”
Zifa in 2012 banned for life over 10 individuals fingered in the biggest scandal ever to hit Zimbabwean football.
Almost 100 local footballers were also found guilty of receiving sums of money from an illegal Asian betting syndicate between 2007 and 2009 to lose matches by predetermined score-lines.
Most of the football and individuals were order to pay fins of various amounts while former national team players Guthrie Zhokinyi, Method Mwanjali and Thomas Sweswe were banned for life.
Zifa last year approached Fifa to endorse the bans so as to have worldwide effect. The world football ruling body however turned down Zifa’s request, saying they needed more criminating evidence to make such a decision.
Fifa was not impressed with the way Zifa investigated or imposed sanctions in the match-fixing saga which revealed that from August 2007 to January 2010 impoverished Zimbabwean players and officials were easy prey for convicted serious match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal and his ring of cronies.
Dube also predicted a bright future for Zimbabwean football after the stagnation of the previous years that has seen the warriors fail to make an impact on the international stage.
“My first month in the office since my re-election has been encouraging including the acquisition of the farm. It’s going to be exciting,” he said.
“All the promises that I made in my manifesto I’m going to ensure are fulfilled. Our offices do not have computers and I put it on my manifesto to give you the computers. I have bought computers one for each province.
“For the regions and other affiliates you get them next month. Honorary members will be given cell phones. They are the elders and anytime you encounter a problem we go to them.”