Asiagate bans divide Zimbabwe: Gumede

By Petros Kausiyo

As Zifa prepare to release the second batch of Asiagate bans tomorrow, the association’s vice president Ndumiso Gumede has revealed that the sanctions they have meted out on the culprits of the match-fixing scam have divided the nation’s opinion.

Zifa are tomorrow expected to announce the names of the players, coaches and officials they will be slapping with 10-year bans for their alleged roles in the controversial tours to Asia by the Warriors, Young Warriors and Premiership side Monomotapa.

Zimbabwe’s team to the Cecafa also came under intense scrutiny during a probe that stretched more than a year with two committees leading the way in investigations into allegations that the Warriors were paid to throw away matches in such games.

Gumede who chaired the first probe team stressed that Zifa had resolved to handle the recommendations they received from retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ahmed Ebrahim “on a case-by-case basis’’.

“The Ethics committee did a great job and what they came up with are recommendations but the Zifa board and individuals on the Zifa board would then make decisions on which penalties to hand down.

“Recommendations are like advice and we have considered that advice and come up with our list of sanctions. We then notified Fifa and they will also give us their advice.

“Of course this issue has divided opinion in the nation because some are saying to us you did the right thing and this will clean up our football. Others are saying you are right on the masterminds, but please be lenient with the players and some are saying everyone who did wrong must face the music but also consider fines.

“So you can see that people are not going to agree on one position but as a board and I must stress that this is a collective board decision we decided that we will look at the recommendations on a case-by-case and then we will vary the penalties.

“Some people will be upgraded to a stiffer penalty others will be downgraded depending on the evidence that is before us and what the Ethics committee gathered. Even the Ethics committee has suggested that in some cases we need to continue with investigations.

“But people must just wait for the official names to be released rather than speculate on who is in and who has been left out,’’ Gumede said.

Ebrahim, writing in Chapter 1 of his report also revealed that they had been tempted to call the document “an interim report’’.

“We had considered calling this report an ‘interim report’. In a sense it is an interim report rather a final report. The term final report suggests that everything has been investigated, that a line can be drawn that there is no need for further enquiry.

“As is explained this report cannot be regarded as a final report in that sense:

“It is clear that in spite of what has already been disclosed much more investigation needs to be done (whether by this committee or another appointed for the task). The role, if any of board members and management members of Zifa certainly needs to be investigated

“Evidence from two important witnesses (who themselves were named by other witnesses as being major culprits) cast a very different light on their respective roles and led the committee to believe that other board and management members were likely to have been involved in the match fixing.

“In respect of certain other matches and tours, though the evidence is less clear. This does not mean that those matches and tours were not ‘fixed’ or that people who participated in them are not guilty of some offence. The evidence certainly indicates that some, at least, of those other matches and tours may well have been fixed but there was no sufficient conclusive evidence available by the time the committee had to produce a report.

“Further investigation may well provide this evidence, however, we are unable to say one or the other and while we cannot come to any conclusions about their guilt, we cannot exonerate the participants in those events,’’ Ebrahim said. The Herald