The ManicaPost
WE all know Cecilia Gambe as a football loving, outspoken personality, whose passion for the development of women football is beyond reproach.
We all know Gambe as a voice for the voiceless, not only in Sakubva where she grew up and became a celebrated figure but also for illustrious yet unappreciated bunch of women called the Mighty Warriors.
Indeed, we all know Gambe as a fearless character with an intrinsic ghetto mentality that at times drives her to behave or react in manners least expected of a leader.
But all the passion for football and the good works that she did for women football were for once forgotten when she chose to invade the pitch at Sakubva stadium on that sunny Sunday afternoon in May this year.
Screaming newspaper headlines were authored and published, radio and television bulletins were aired following that unfortunate, or rather nasty incident
If there is anything that remained inexplicable, it was the silence from the country’s soccer mother body. Zifa was almost setting the wrong precedent.
The association, in its wisdom or sheer lack of it, was creating a little banana republic where anyone among the rank and file of Zifa would behave in any way they wanted and risk no punitive measures.
Zifa were unknowingly setting the wrong precedent that would haunt the association for a long time to come and possibly taint the images of those in the current board.
This is exactly why recent news that Gambe had been suspended made much sense to every progressive follower of the game of football in the country.
Football followers across the country woke up on Friday last week to the news that Cecilia Gambe – the outspoken women football administrator – had been suspended.
It must have been perplexing to many how and why Gambe had been suspended given the fact the incident that resulted in this disciplinary measure occurred way back in May.
It took the domestic football administration body five months to deliberate on a clear case of indiscipline by one of its own. For some time, many would be forgiven to assume that she had become an untouchable demi god who could do as she pleases.
It goes without saying that Gambe is a national leader in football and should behave as such. That she comes from Mutare is known and her allegiance to Mutare teams can only be understood to be natural and expected only if she keeps it to herself, being a national football leader she is.
If anything, Gambe must know that she is supposed to be neutral when dealing with individual football teams given the fact that stakeholders in football look up to people like Gambe to serve the interests of all teams being a Zifa official.
In the same breadth, we might also want to remind Gambe that wherever she is, as long as she is part of a public body such as Zifa, she is carrying the image of Zifa. Whatever she does in public, be it in her private life, will always be prefixed with her role as a Zifa official.
If she does not understand this simple principle, then she has no business being part of leadership of organisations that have an image to protect.
Going into the future, we urge Gambe to move out of the denial mode and do the honourable thing of apologising for her unbecoming behaviour. That way and only that way she would earn back her respect.
