Sorta Guilty, Definitely Axed

She Is Crying on the Inside… and Behind the Glasses

And thus ends the reign of UF’s favorite FA chief executive. Zimbabwe’s Henrietta Rushwaya was fired from her position by ZIFA (the country’s FA) today amidst the allegations of match fixing that are lingering over the national team from a trip to Southeast Asia last December.

Curiously though, Rushwaya wasn’t found guilty of match fixing by the ZIFA tribunal that brought charges against her. In fact, despite all of the claims, no formal charges of match fixing were ever even brought against her by the panel. That despite the fact that several former players gave sworn statements that they were paid, and are now facing lifetime bans.

In those statements, Zimbabwe players admitted they were paid between $500 and $1,500 to throw matches not only in December of 2009 (during the period of the trip in question) but also back in 2008 when Zimbabwe lost 3-2 to Oman and 5-2 to Bahrain.

The details from Thomas Svosve are pretty awesome: “A Chinese guy came to the hotel and told us to lose 3-0. We were promised $1,500 per player and we lost 5-2 and we were paid our money… There was a ‘ball man’ behind our goal giving out instructions to concede goals. The Chinese guy was alone … our coaches were conspicuous by their absence. I don’t know how they were paid or if they were paid, but I believe they were.”

Ah yes, the old Chinese ‘ball man’ routine.

ZIFA hasn’t ruled out the possibility of further charges (specifically the match-fixing ones), though, as that investigation is still ongoing.

So exactly what was she guilty of?

“Playing a key role in the Warriors’ unsanctioned trip to Thailand and Malaysia in December last year, authorizing Monomotapa’s trip to Malaysia in which the 2008 Premiership champions masqueraded as the Warriors, and causing the attachment of ZIFA property after failing to deal with a debt to Pandhari Lodge and thereby causing embarrassment to the ZIFA board and the association… Applying for a loan of $103 000 from the Sport and Recreation Commission without the authority of the board and that to date she has not accounted for the money. Promising the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee $38 000 without authority from the board to commit funds from the FIFA financial assistance programme for the Under-15 team to the Youth Olympic Games. And failing to implement a board resolution of June 21 2010 to effect change of signatories to the ZIFA bank accounts.”

Translation: She fielded a fake national team and probably embezzled some cash.

Rushwaya isn’t completely out of the woods. Again, ZIFA could still come at her for match fixing; and there is the possibility of further sanctions from FIFA. But for now, she’s got some free time on her hands. Okay, she’s probably had that free time since she was suspended back in July. But now that she’s officially been canned, we feel a ray of sadness.