Zambian football toxicity has a similar ringing tone to Zimbabwe

When Ponga Liwewe, who is leaving his post as the Football Association of Zambia secretary-general, lifted a lid on the politics ugly devouring the game in his homeland, he appeared to be also speaking about the madness that has been stalking the sport in this country.

Ponga, who is the son of the late legendary Zambian football commentator Dennis, is widely respected across the continent and has been adding value to the game’s administrative arm in his country with Zambia winning the CAF Under-20 Nations Cup on home soil last year.

He became FAZ secretary-general in May 2016.

Speaking, for the first time, about what had forced him to walk away from serving his country as one of its main football leaders, Ponga told SuperSport’s weekly football magazine programme, Soccer Africa, of his frustration about the polarised environment in the game in Zambia which he said didn’t suit his personality.

He said there were too many external forces who wanted to see the FAZ leadership, under the guidance of the association’s president Andrew Kamanga, fail in their thrust to try and turn Zambian football into a success story.

Ponga’s views about the ugly politics in Zambian football appear similar to what has been happening in this country with a section opposed to the ZIFA leadership under Philip Chiyangwa and willing that it fails in its mission to try and add value to Zimbabwean football.

Chiyangwa and his team have been bombarded by a group of critics, including some former employees of the Association led by ex-ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, who have been fighting a relentless boardroom battle to try and elbow the current leadership from power.

The Harare property tycoon claims Mashingaidze used to lead a powerful cartel which had captured ZIFA and allegedly fleeced the Association leading to the organisation’s debt swelling from $500 000 to over $7 million in less than five years.

Others have also claimed that Chiyangwa’s term of office expires at the end of this month and with the Association not set to hold elections, as they await guidance from FIFA and fulfilment of their Election Road Map, these critics have been claiming the game would slip into a constitutional crisis of monumental proportions.

Chiyangwa has been arguing his position as ZIFA president is not up for grabs at the end of term of office of the old leadership, led by Cuthbert Dube, which was recalled by the Councillors for failure to discharge their duties. He has been saying the ZIFA presidency is not a position which is completed in a replay as the Association’s constitution is very clear, according to Articles 25 and 28, which distinguishes the role of the Association’s president from that of the other executive committee members and clearly stipulates that once elected into that position, one has a full four-year mandate unless recalled by the Councillors.

Article 25 of the ZIFA Constitution says:

(1) Elections shall be conducted by secret ballot.

(2) Elections for ZIFA members shall be conducted in accordance with the ZIFA constitution and ZIFA electoral code.

(3) The Electoral Committee organises and supervises the election process and takes all decisions relating to the election according to the ZIFA Electoral Code

(6) For the elections of the president of ZIFA, the respective provisions in Article 38 of these statutes shall apply.

(8) For the elections of the president of ZIFA, the respective provisions in Article 38 of these statutes shall apply.’’

The ZIFA constitution then distinguishes between elections of ZIFA members (executive committee) and those of ZIFA president, which are conducted separately in terms of Article 38 as directed by Article 25.6 of the ZIFA constitution highlighted above.

Article 38 then says:

(1) the president shall be elected by the Congress for a period of four years. His mandate shall begin after the end of the Congress which has elected him. A president may be re-elected once.

(2) For the election of the president, two-thirds of the valid votes cast are necessary in the first ballot.’’

Despite all these clear pronouncements, a number of hawks have been in battle mode against Chiyangwa and, interestingly, Ponga’s views on the politics devouring Zambian football, which have forced him to leave, appear a carbon copy of what is unfolding in Zimbabwe.

“Zambian football is totally polarised, which wasn’t the case maybe a decade ago,’’ Ponga told Soccer Africa.

“You have a situation where people who have been in office (before) continue to fight the new people who are in office today and (create a) very unpleasant environment for the running of the game.

“There’s also a group of people who worked with him (Kamanga, the FAZ president) and who expected that it would be automatic that there would be benefits because they worked with him, and when they realised that he is not a sort of person to be dishing out favours; they have also turned against him so he said himself that he is in a no-win situation.

“We had situations where the people who were in office before this executive, you know one or two of their supporters always felt it was necessary to keep on attacking the Association and some of these people are media people unfortunately, so they have always strived to create an impression that there is turbulence where it wasn’t really a case of turbulence at all.

“I found football to be quite a political environment, previously my work has been in the private sector from the time I left school . . . so it’s quite a toxic environment.

“In a political/sport environment has sort of shown me that it is not the kind of environment that I think would fit me.’’ The Herald