December 12 – Further pressure is growing on Zimbabwean football boss Philip Chiyangwa, an ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after his leadership came under a strongly worded attack from former Zimbabwe FA (ZIFA) chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze.
Last week Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission was requested to investigate claims of “corruption, fraud, misappropriation, abuse of power, misconduct and lack of good corporate governance” during the tenure of Chiyangwa, who was a key figure in the election victory earlier this year of Infantino-backed Confederation of African Football president Ahmad Ahmad.
Now Mashingaidze has launched a damning assault on Chiyangwa warning the ZIFA congress not to re-elect him next year.
Mashingaidze, who served as ZIFA general secretary from 2004 to 2016 when his contract was not renewed and clearly has an axe to grind, made the claims in a 13-page document in which he describes the Chiyangwa-led executive committee as “a demonic leadership possessed with greed, cruelty, self-aggrandisement and vanity.”
He told the Standardsport newspaper that he would be meeting with various stakeholders to discuss the document which he said was designed to illustrate the “tragedy that has befallen our game as a result of corruption, mis-management, incompetency, selfishness, patronage and downright greed.”
He also claims Chiyangwa used dirty tricks to win the election that ushered him into office in December 2015 and that the FIFA ethics committee is being engaged “to deal decisively with the scandal.”
