Chyangwa Promises To Help Source Loans & Residential Stands For National Team Players If He Takes Charge Of Zifa

ASPIRING Zifa president, Philip Chiyangwa, has promised to use his Zanu PF and business links to source for loans and residential stands for national team players if he succeeds in taking charge of the country’s football mother body.

Chiyangwa, a property mogul who once claimed to own nearly a fifth of Harare’s land, was speaking to StarFM radio Monday afternoon.

He boasted about what he claimed to be an impeccable history if it came to fulfilling promises, adding that “bhora ratangwa pari different this time”.

“I have given a lot of stands in their hundreds in the past for free. I have never promised anybody a stand and gone on to fail to give them,” said the Zanu PF central committee member.

“So, issuing out stands is not a big deal to me. There are not so many players in the national team … certainly I think I will get stands from the state and if that fails I will give them mine.”

If he became Zifa boss, Chiyangwa promised to approach youth and indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao to negotiate for loans for both men and women national team players.

He further promised to conduct a forensic audit into the Zifa debt, claiming he has established through his own investigations that the current debt had been inflated.

The former boxing promoter further promised to reinstate Zimbabwe’s 2018 soccer World Cup qualifying bid which collapsed spectacularly under ousted Zifa president Cuthbert Dube’s turbulent reign.

Chiyangwa scorned Dube for running an association without the requisite business credentials.

“I will not allow what happened during the Cuthbert Dube regime where they thought he was a businessman,” said the former Zanu PF MP.

“Cuthbert has never run any business in the country,” he added

“He (Dube) was coming in as a corporate fellow who was coming from PSMAS (Premier Service Medical Aid Society) where government was pouring in money.

“That’s a different ball game. I am a success from where I am coming from and Zifa will be successful.”

Despite unveiling a colourful manifesto which promises a return to good football governance and the mainstreaming of women’s football in the country, Chiyangwa’s surprise bid for Zifa presidency has been met with consternation from the greater footballing world and political opponents.

Critics dismiss the Pinnacle Holdings owner as a chancer who could ruin the affairs of a sport which needs sober soccer minds as opposed to populists.

The four horse Zifa race is set for December 5. source-newzimbabwe

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