Businessman and educationist Innocent Benza has ruled himself out of the race for the ZIFA presidency in the upcoming elections, which are set to take place in early 2025.
The long-awaited elections will follow the expiration of the ZIFA Normalisation Committee’s term in January 2025.
This week, ZIFA’s new constitution was officially registered by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), clearing the way for the elections to proceed.
The 54-year-old Benza, who is also the Member of Parliament for Mutasa Central (ZANU PF) and a member of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, revealed that he has been receiving persistent calls from the football community urging him to consider a bid for the ZIFA presidency.
Despite the pressure, Benza has decided not to enter the race. He said:
Of late I have been receiving a lot of calls from stakeholders to consider running for the position of ZIFA president.
It is not something that I have been thinking about. In fact, I am ready to support whoever wants to go for it as long as they are competent and fit the required criteria.
I love football enough and becoming its leader would have been quite exciting, especially with so much support from stakeholders who are making a lot of calls for me to become the ZIFA leader.
I am really humbled to receive all those calls from key football people. It shows that, they have trust in me.
I am not entirely ruling it out but for now, I am choosing not to contest and I will support the right candidate for the post.
I have been in football administration for close to 30 years and we have also been running other sports like cricket and we have regularly provided national team players.
I hope to support the right candidate for the position based on different factors.
Benza and his son Tino made history as the first— and still the only—father-son duo to play in Zimbabwe’s top-flight football league.
Benza is a prominent businessman and football stakeholder, owning several schools and football teams.
He is the proprietor of Premier Soccer League (PSL) side Herentals, which is currently in 5th place in the league standings with two matches remaining in the 2024 season.
In addition to Herentals, Benza also owns Herentals U20, which competes in the Northern Region Soccer League, and Herentals Queens, the serial champions of the Women’s Soccer League.
His football investments extend further, with four Herentals Division 2 teams based in Harare, Rusape, Kadoma, and Bulawayo.
Benza also runs a thriving academy that caters to players aged 4 to 20, nurturing young talent across multiple age groups.
Meanwhile, the race for the ZIFA presidency is heating up, with several high-profile candidates expressing interest in running.
Among them are Farai Jere, the current PSL chairman and owner of CAPS United FC; Walter Magaya, founder of the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries, and owner of Yadah FC; Richard Mazodze, owner of FC Wangu Mazodze in the ZIFA Eastern Region Soccer League Division 1; Marshal Gore, a UK-based football administrator; and Philemon Machana, a former ZIFA executive.
Machana was recently acquitted of fraud charges, alongside fellow former ZIFA officials Felton Kamambo, Stanley Chapeta, Joseph Mamutse, and Brighton Malandule.
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