It was good to hear that the new Zifa Board met the Sports and Recreation Commission to share their plans on the way forward for Zimbabwean football.
This is the right way for Zifa to go about it as things in the past never worked well for football because successive previous Zifa leaderships never had a good relationships with the Sports and Recreation Commission.
The fact that the SRC has appointed so many committees to investigate problems afflicting football and recommend solutions, clearly shows how committed the SRC is to football development.
Surely, the SRC is the only route to get the government's support - be it material or financially - and a good relationship with the SRC is the best way for Zifa to go about it.
We can lie to ourselves but the truth is that there is no way that our national teams will prosper on the international front without government funding and the SRC holds the key to that funding.
For those not in the know how, Fifa funds are meant for specific developmental projects and not for national team international participation and - without any other funding - only the government is the answer to national team funding.
Fifa had undertaken to take care of the Warriors only during the Normalisation Committee days and with the coming in of a new Zifa leadership, Zimbabwe are now on their own in terms of taking care of their own national teams
There is no way that our government could be broke to the extent of failing to sustain our national teams but what was lacking in the past was rapport and engagement - from Zifa to the SRC - and from the SRC to the ministry - and then from the sports ministry to treasury.
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Surely, the government has always given its hand to football and some will recall how - sometime back - this same government chartered a plane for the Warriors and their fans to travel to Angola for an Afcon qualifier.
Some of us even benefitted when in 2001 we travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo for an Afcon qualifier on a plane provided by the government of Zimbabwe through the SRC.
With Afcon 2025 coming, that can be done again provided the right channels are followed and if the SRC has faith and trust in the leadership running Zimbabwe's most popular sport.
The SRC itself might have its faults but it has always been committed to football and only two years ago SRC chairman Gerald Mhlotswa revealed that they had applied to the government to fund the Warriors, the Mighty Warriors and the Young Warriors.
That is still to happen because no-one followed it up with Mhlotswa because Zimbabwe has not had a bona-fide Zifa leadership for some time.
Now that Quobile Magwizi has taken over the reigns at Zifa, now is the time to to make a follow up with Mhlotswa and see how best the government can fund our men and women's national teams.
It should also be placed on record that national team coaches in most African countries are recruited by the football federation but their salaries are paid for by the government and that can also be done here.
Already, the government - albeit at a slow pace - is renovating the National Sports Stadium to have it conform to the requirements of CAF and FIFA so that it could be used by the national teams and clubs representing Zimbabwe in Pan African football.
That assistance could be extended to even other bigger benefits only if Zifa are willing to change from the past and understand that the government should be their main source of survival.
Surely, Caf and FIFA money comes but with its own conditions but from the Zimbabwean government, football will get funds for its unconditional, specific, and applied uses.
So, in short, football or Zifa needs the SRC more now than never before.
* For your views, comments, and suggestions mkariati@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 071 0774 596 or call on 0773 266 779.
