Chiyangwa fires Twine Phiri

ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa says he has nothing personal against Twine Phiri and is only following the association's constitution which says that all board members had their mandate revoked on October 3.

Those who want to be part of the ZIFA board, post October 3, have to be re-elected by the various constituencies and Chiyangwa says Phiri, just like the leader of women football, lost their mandates in that revocation.

Highlanders boss Peter Dube is now the acting PSL chairman until the league holds fresh elections on February 13 and they can either give Phiri the mandate or select someone else. Chiyangwa yesterday maintained that the PSL leadership became vacant on October 3 when the ZIFA board's mandate was revoked by the Assembly.

The ZIFA boss said even if Phiri still had the mandate, he had to satisfy Article 21 of the PSL constitution which states that a member of the top-flight leadership has to be either president or chairperson.

Phiri is now vice-president at CAPS United after disposing his majority stake in the club to partner Farai Jere, who is now the president, and Nhamo Tutisani.

The chairman of the board is lawyer Lewis Uriri. "I told Twine Phiri himself in our meeting last Friday that he was holding office illegally. His staying in power was illegal especially after his mandate was revoked together with the members of the previous board.

"Even the PSL constitution Article 21 tells him that he is not fit to hold that office.

"I also want to make it clear that there was no ballot that took place at the meeting. What happened there is that I asked the clubs one by one and they said they still wanted him in office but then we referred back to their own constitution.

"Even if they (clubs) wanted him to continue as their president, this man is not even a chairman or president at his club and, therefore, is not eligible even at the next election unless he has his papers in order which say he is chairman or president.

"It was even illegal for him to attend that meeting. So, whatever, the clubs did was out of ignorance and it seems Phiri was taking advantage of that. Now they know. We are not doing things outside the constitution.

"The acting chairman is Peter Dube, that is what is constitutional," said Chiyangwa. Chiyangwa said Phiri and the leader of women football were part of the ZIFA board which accrued a debt of more than $6 million.

"We would want to know the income and expenditure and also see how the people who were in office Twine Phiri and Miriam Sibanda also conducted their business," said Chiyangwa.

"A thorough and extensive audit will be carried out to establish the movements of funds and how those funds were handled at the PSL.

"ZIFA's Beach Soccer, PSL, Futsal, Women Soccer, schools football so the moment an audit start they become part of the audit. When you say you are auditing ZIFA it means ZIFA and its affiliates.

"I don't want to be in the office without knowing what was happening before I came in. We have got the forensic audit to prove the state of the affairs. Anyone giving us money now wants to know the status that was there. We just want to make sure that everything is clean, it's no longer business as usual. You can't just wake up and assume everything.

"We will update the sponsors of the developments that are taking place in football. They will hear from Kenny Ndebele, the PSL chief executive, with regards the situation with Twine Phiri."