Warriors midfielder Marshall Munetsi says members of the country’s government-appointed Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) know nothing about football and got their posts through political connections.
The SRC suspended the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) board in November 2021 on allegations of sexual harassment of female referees by technical staff and fraud.
FIFA responded to the move by SRC to suspend the Felton Kamambo-led ZIFA board suspending Zimbabwe from all international football competitions.
Munetsi, who plays for French club Stade de Reims, told BBC Sport Africa that the FIFA suspension has negatively affected the growth of Zimbabwean footballers. He said:
The thing is that they never communicate with the players.
These are people who are just in positions because they maybe know someone in government. They don’t know anything about football.
For us, it hurts us a lot because this is our life. This is football and it’s something that can change a nation, that can change a lot of fortunes for the country.
They have to ask us about certain things because, if you hear the accusations, it’s something that doesn’t have anything to do with football – it’s all politics.
FIFA has a say on it, but they also have to communicate with us.
Meanwhile, the SRC refuted Munetsi’s claims, saying its officials are not in power because of government connections but because they have gone through “a robust selection process”.
Munetsi said he supports the SRC’s quest to clean up the governance of the game in Zimbabwe but also wants the Commission to engage players. He said:
This is one thing I can say to the people that are in charge: they have to communicate with the players that are involved because we have so many big players playing in Europe.
It will be a good opportunity for them to sit down and talk with us so that we can all find a way forward.
But the SRC shot down Munetsi’s request saying it cannot talk to players directly as this is against the law. The SRC said:
As guided by the SRC act, the SRC does not engage players directly as this is under the purview of the National Sporting Associations, who relay any key positions and updates from the SRC to their athletes.