Politicians should not be actively involved in sports administration

As a social democratic political party, the MDC-T firmly believes that sport is an integral component of modern day human life. Indeed, sport is no longer just a past time or a hobby; it has evolved into becoming an income - generating industry on its own. The world over, millions of young people are now earning a  decent  and comfortable living as a result of participating in professional sporting activities such as football, rugby, tennis, cricket, basketball, golf etc. In particular, football has become a multi - billion dollar global business and many footballers have become millionaires through playing professional football; especially in the major leagues such as the English Premiership, La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy. In Zimbabwe, we have footballers who have successfully managed to brand themselves into global soccer icons such as Peter Ndlovu, Moses Chunga, Bruce Grobelaar  and Benjani Mwaruwari, just to mention a few.

Professional sport has become big business. t has also managed to bring peace, love and unity amongst people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. As a nation, we are all very proud of the exploits of Kirsty Coventry who has won several gold medals at swimming competitions at the Olympic Games. More recently, our national women football team, the Mighty Warriors, brought us immense joy and excitement as they achieved a historic feat of qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games to be played in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The MDC-T firmly believes that politicians shouldn't be actively involved in the administration of any sporting organisation. Sport should essentially be administered by non - political actors in order to ensure that there is no unnecessary polarisation and friction amongst sportspersons and fans who follow and enjoy various sporting disciplines. This is the main reason why the global football association, FIFA, is very strict in ensuring that there shouldn't be any political interference in the manner in which national football associations are administered. By its very nature, politics can be very toxic and confrontational and perhaps, this is the rationale behind the principle adopted by FIFA that political interference is strictly forbidden in soccer administration.

More importantly, the MDC-T also advocates for a policy whereby sports administration in the various sporting disciplines is essentially left in the hands of people who have actively participated in the particular sport as players, administrators or stakeholders in a meaningful and tangible way. Put simply, sports administration should never, ever be contaminated by the involvement and participation of practising and active politicians. In addition, fly - by- night opportunists and some other such chancers should also never be granted the opportunity to become top level sports administrators. These people, almost  invariably harbour certain ulterior motives that may not be in the best interests of all concerned stakeholders.

Football is arguably the world's most beautiful game. As such, practising and active politicians should keep away from holding positions in the day to day administration of a sport that is keenly followed and supported by millions of Zimbabweans. Politicians should be involved in politics and football stakeholders such as former soccer players and some other such persons with a direct link to football should be left to administer football affairs.