ZIFA deletes statement after Prophet Magaya threatens legal action

The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has deleted a Monday press statement from its social media accounts following threats from Walter Magaya's Heart Group. This action came after Magaya's group, which owns Heart Stadium in Harare, responded to comments by ZIFA's normalisation committee chairperson Lincoln Mutasa. Mutasa's statement had criticized Heart Stadium for not meeting the standards required for international football matches.

In their response, Heart Group, through their lawyer Admire Rubaya, demanded a retraction of Mutasa's comments and threatened to sue ZIFA for $1 million in damages for defamation. The group argued that Mutasa and ZIFA had never inspected the stadium and were thus unqualified to make judgments about its facilities. They also accused Mutasa of spreading false information and relying on unverified sources.

Rubaya's letter also criticized ZIFA for allegedly ignoring invitations to inspect the stadium and for making defamatory claims about a project overseen by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The letter warned that failure to retract the statement would lead to legal action, including claims for damages under the Data Protection Act.

Despite the legal threats, it remains a broader issue that Heart Stadium, like other stadiums in Zimbabwe, does not currently meet the Confederation of African Football (CAF) standards. Significant improvements are needed across Zimbabwean stadiums to host international matches and keep local teams from playing their home games abroad.