Chiyangwa's Zifa backyard in shambles

ZIFA and Cosafa president Philip Chiyangwa last week kick started his "whirlwind tour" to look into the state of football in southern African countries under his jurisdiction. However, his own association is in shambles as it continues to operate without a functioning secretariat, investigations by Standardsport have revealed.

Zifa has been operating without a substantive CEO since April last year with the association's operating officer Joseph Mamutse, taking over on an acting capacity after former CEO Jonathan Mashingaidze's contract was not renewed.

Since then, Zifa advertised the vacant post before later deciding to head-hunt, but 14 months down the line, the local football governing body remains without a substantive CEO.

The absence of a substantive CEO is just the tip of the iceberg of the general lack of compliance to basic corporate governance that is fast becoming a culture at the country's football governing body.

Ironically, the country's supreme sport's governing body the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and the Sports ministry headed by Makhosini Hlongwane have not taken any action even after the latter declared 2017 the year of good governance in sport.

The situation has become so bad to the extent that the association's excecutive committee members are currently running the day-to-day operations of the association while its judicial bodies such as the disciplinary committee and the appeals committee are not functional.

The association's headquarters at 54 Livingstone Avenue in Harare remain deserted over a year after current leadership's failed bid to dissolve Zifa and replace it with the National Football Association of Zimbabwe.

Since then, the remaining Zifa employees are operating from Chiyangwa's private business premises in Harare.

Investigations by Standardsport last week revealed that the local football mother body has been operating without a finance manager since June 2016 when Benjamin Dhewa was offloaded without getting a termination letter.

Although world football governing body Fifa makes it mandatory for all federations to employ a full-time referee's desk manager who must be a retired referee, Zifa does not have one since Obert Mamvura was also given the sack again with no letter of termination in June last year.

Zifa again is yet to name a replacement, a development which last year forced the PSL to temporarily take over referees' appointments until the association announced a referees committee over three months later.

Zifa's competitions manager Weston Mabhande was also sent packing as his position was given to the association's communications manager Xolisani Gwesela.

The chaos in Zifa's secretariat has mirrored the haphazard manner in which the association has handled the appointment of national team coaches.

Last week Sunday Chidzambwa was appointed the interim coach ahead of the ongoing Cosafa tournament even though he was still a member of the Zifa high performance committee, whose role is to oversee the team he was assigned to coach.