IT has been a difficult year for Zimbabwe following the country's suspension from international football by the global body — Fifa — back in February.
The Warriors, surprisingly still ranked 125th on the latest Fifa world rankings, played just four matches, all in January this year.
One was a warm-up match with Sudan ahead of the Afcon finals and three against Group B rivals Senegal, Malawi and Guinea at the continental championship in Cameroon.
And then Fifa decided to suspend the country’s membership for what they interpreted as a third-party interference in football matters, which effectively extinguished hopes of any more international engagement for all national teams and clubs.
The ban was expected as Fifa, exactly a year ago, had sent a chilling warning following the suspension of the Zifa board led by Felton Kamambo by local sport regulator the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) in November last year.
In a letter dated December 21, 2021, Fifa said “Appropriate sanctions may have to be imposed on Zifa’ unless the elected FA regains control of the sport by 3 January.”
The letter threw the country’s participation at the Afcon finals in doubt, but Zimbabwe was able to take part at the biennial continental championship where it disappointed yet again.
Zimbabwe lost 1-0 against Senegal, 2–1 to Malawi and finished the tournament with a 2–1 victory over Guinea, in their last international appearance in a long time.
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The Fifa suspension saw Zimbabwe national teams miss out on a number of international events notably the Afcon qualifiers, 2022 Cosafa Cup, CHAN 2022 men qualifiers, Caf Champions League and Confederations Cup this year alone.
Young Warriors also were barred from taking part in the Cosafa Under-20 championship, which acted as a zonal qualifier for the 2023 Under-20 Cup of Nations.
The country’s women teams have also suffered the effects of the ban, which looks like it might stick around for a long time to come.
However, local football competitions were played with FC Platinum winning a record fourth consecutive league title while Bulawayo Chiefs grabbed their maiden silverware after lifting the Chibuku Super Cup.
Herentals Queens were crowned women’s league champions.
But all the clubs will not have an opportunity to represent the country on the continent because of the Fifa suspension.
SRC, who have remained adamant in the quest to clean up the game of football, have reiterated that lifting of the suspension was not a priority at the present moment.
“The lifting of the suspension is not a priority, let us get that out of our heads, our priority is the process to clean up our football. We are not in a rush at this point in time to go to Fifa and say lift the suspension. They will ask us whether we have cured all the things we gave as reasons when we suspended the Zifa board, we are not there yet,” SRC board chairman Gerald Mlotshwa said during Zifa’s damning forensic audit presentation last month.
Zimbabwe footballers such as Marshall Munetsi, Tatenda Mukuruva, Khama Billiat, Onesimor Bhasera and George Chigova have taken turns to implore relevant authorities to push for lifting of the suspension for the benefit of current and future stars.
Fifa has generally remained quiet on Zimbabwe's suspension since they demanded the reinstatement of the Kamambo-led board, but Mlotshwa revealed that the football governing body was aware of the process that was happening in the country.
The Zifa restructuring committee, which was put in place last year as part of the SRC’s strategic roadmap towards addressing issues affecting domestic football management and administration is understood to have finished with its finding.
Perhaps the completion of the mandate of the restructuring committee will speed up the return to normalcy for Zimbabwe football.
Fifa disapproves of government interference in the running of member associations and have been known to be unwavering in this regard.
A number of countries who have been suspended for similar offences such as Kenya, India and Pakistan had their bans lifted by Fifa this year.
But all the countries in question have had to reinstate the old administrations while Pakistan needed a normalisation committee for a return to international football.
The Zimbabwe football fraternity will be hoping for better in 2023 and probably the lifting of the Fifa ban else Zimbabwe will slip below football minnows such as Antigua and Barbuda who are just six places behind on the ranking on 131st place.
Zimbabwe could also slide out of the top 150 and go behind countries like Solomon Islands (136), St Kitts and Nevis (140), Nicaragua (142) and Hong Kong (146) among others.
