Herald
By Petros Kausiyo
4 July 2011
TOP Fifa officials Francesco Bruscoli and Ashford Mamelodi flew into Harare yesterday ahead of the expected arrival of the world body’s President Sepp Blatter for a historic visit to Zimbabwe.
Blatter is expected this morning and the pair arrived as an advance party.
Fifa have indicated that Blatter’s maiden visit to Zimbabwe was a show of the world body’s willingness to assist in the development of the domestic football family that is battling to turn on a new corner and become professional in all its facets.
Blatter and Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke are expected to fly in early this morning aboard a private jet and they are scheduled to meet with Zifa, football stakeholders, government officials and pay a courtesy call on President Robert Mugabe at State House.
The Fifa president will also visit the Zifa Village in Mt Hampden to inspect progress on the Zifa Goal Project, perform a ground-breaking ceremony at the site of the association’s training centre at the village, and tour Rufaro.
Fifa funded the installation of the artificial turf at the Mbare stadium three years ago.
Blatter is also expected to take time to watch the Cosafa Women’s Championships Group A match between Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors and Malawi at Rufaro.
But before Blatter flies in today, two of the world body’s development officials Bruscoli and Mamelodi arrived to prepare the finer details of the Fifa boss’ visit.
In what promises a busy start to the week for the local game, Fifa head of security Chris Eaton and investigations officer Terry Steans were also scheduled to arrive in the capital late last night to discuss with Zifa the probe into the Asiagate scam during which the Warriors were paid to throw games on controversial tours to the Far East.
But the duo of Bruscoli and Mamelodi are here to form part of Blatter’s high-level Fifa entourage.
Bruscoli is the Fifa senior manager for development programmes in Africa while Mamelodi is the world soccer governing body’s development officer for Southern Africa.
The Swiss-based Bruscoli, making his maiden trip to this country, was the first to arrive at 2pm before Mamelodi, who operates from the Fifa office in Botswana flew in two hours later, with Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze on hand at the Harare International airport to welcome the two officials.
More importantly for Zimbabwe however, was the revelation by Bruscoli that Blatter’s visit could herald good times for local football.
“It is my first time in Zimbabwe and I am here with Mamelodi who is the development manager for the region. The main purpose of our visit is to prepare for the visit by the Fifa president who will be here tomorrow.
“But I am already scheduling another meeting (with Zifa) in one month and I will then develop a strategy to develop Zimbabwean football,” Bruscoli said.
“Win in Africa with Africa” campaign that saw the installation of artificial turf across the continent and also resulted in courses being held for administrators and coaches is one of Fifa’s development initiatives.
“I think it (Blatter’s visit) is a sign of the fact that Fifa wants to invest and work with the Zimbabwe football family and its leadership.
“We also want to show the support of Fifa to Zimbabwe for having the courage to agree to host the Cosafa Women’s Championships at very short notice because it is also a tournament that is important for the development of women football,” Bruscoli said.
Fifa last week embraced the Cosafa Women’s tournament with Bruscoli writing to Zifa, through Mamelodi, to advise them that the world body had taken over the costs of staging the regional competition that had looked to be off the radar when Reunion withdrew from hosting it.
Bruscoli said it was important for countries like Zimbabwe to take issues of development seriously, as it is the heartbeat of the game.
“Development is a multi-faceted process, you need to have infrastructure because you if don’t have that you cannot have tournaments or good competitions.
“Technical development is related to actual football and that is your referees, coaches Futsal (Five-A-Side), youth football and women’s football.
“Management is also critical, how the federation is managed, how the league is managed and how the national teams are managed.
“We have put Zifa as one of the pilot projects for a performance programme and Zifa went through a leadership analysis programme with the aim of developing a long term plan,” Bruscoli said.
Zifa are also one of the countries that have undertaken a new Fifa thrust on grassroots football. In a major show of confidence with the current Zifa board, there has been a lot of goodwill between Fifa and the association lately and the world body has embraced Zifa’s grassroots programme, which will run from September 23 to October 1.
“Further to several conversations regarding the development of grassroots in Zimbabwe, we are pleased to confirm the organisation of a grassroots project for your country from 23 September to 1 October 2011.
“Please note that Fifa can assist you with the organisation of a grassroots course, organisation of festivals, tournaments and all necessary equipment for these activities.
“Regarding other necessary aspects for the organiastion of the course such as program list of participants, etc, we recommend you to get in touch with our development office in Gaborone, which will assist you in this matter,” wrote Fifa head of education and technical development Jurg Nepfer.
On the sidelines of Blatter’s itinerary, Eaton and Steans will continue with their probe into match-fixing as part of a Fifa global initiative in which the world body is investigating 300 matches whose results were fixed by betting syndicates emanating from Asia.
Mashingaidze said Eaton will meet with the Zifa investigating committee that is headed by the association’s vice-president Ndumiso Gumede and includes board members Benedict Moyo, Fungai Chihuri and Elliot Kasu.
Gumede’s committee has already completed its work by producing what is now known as the Asiagate II report, whose dossier has been sent to Fifa, Caf and the Sport and Recreation Commission.
Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart and his deputy Lazarus Dokora have also been given their copies as did Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri.
Mashingaidze said Zifa had been updating Fifa on all the steps that the association had been taking on the probe into match-fixing.
“Eaton and Steans will meet with the investigating committee and the police especially in view of the fact that Fifa has availed resources to be used by Interpol in fighting the scourge of match-fixing that had also become a cancer to our football.
“Naturally, the Sport and Recreation would have to meet with them since they initiated the Zifa probe by demanding a report into the unsanctioned trip by the Warriors to Thailand in December 2009,” Mashingaidze said.
Zifa are also expected to roll out their sanctions on those players, coaches and administrators found guilty in the Asiagate scam after exchanging notes with Eaton and Steans.
The Sports Commission have already reportedly recommend to Zifa to “exercise leniency with the players but come down hard on the coaches and administrators behind the scandal.”