The Zimbabwe Mail

ZURICH — FIFA is facing its most serious internal political crisis in years, with the organisation increasingly divided along confederation lines after UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Concacaf launched an extraordinary challenge to President Gianni Infantino and his administration.What began as a dispute over the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) has now developed into a much broader confrontation over who controls the future direction, finances and governance of world football.The three confederations have issued an unusually forceful...

For decades, work measurement carried an unfashionable image. It belonged to the world of the “efficiency expert”, the “time-and-motion man” or the rate fixer walking around a factory with a stopwatch, measuring workers and searching for a few seconds that could be converted into a few cents of savings. As management thinking moved towards quality, employee empowerment, automation and knowledge-based work, the language of work measurement gradually disappeared from everyday business conversation.By Brighton MusonzaThe stopwatch may have disappeared, but...

JOHANNESBURG — South African retail group Massmart has appointed Zimbabwean marketing executive Charmagne Mazhindu as its new Vice President of Marketing, strengthening its leadership team as the retailer accelerates its customer-focused growth and digital transformation strategy.Mazhindu brings more than a decade of experience in marketing leadership, brand development, digital transformation and business strategy across a range of industries. Her appointment comes at a time when Massmart is placing greater emphasis on technology, customer experience and omnichannel retailing as consumer...

ZURICH — FIFA has launched an unusually forceful defence of president Gianni Infantino, warning that it will not allow what it describes as a concerted campaign of allegations, insinuations and misinformation to interfere with the organisation’s constitutional processes or the president’s democratic mandate.In a strongly worded statement issued amid mounting criticism of Infantino from sections of European football and the European media, FIFA said it would reject any attempt to engineer a change of leadership outside the organisation’s established...

HARARE — The image (above) represent the standard model of a Zimbabwean rural shop that has existed since pre-independence Rhodesia; usually built on the dusty rural roadside and surrounded by open ground without other supporting infrastructure, it captures a much larger economic problem confronting Zimbabwe. The building may serve its immediate community, but it also represents the persistence of an outdated commercial architecture in a rural economy that has changed considerably beneath it.Zimbabwe’s rural areas are no longer simply...

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s story is set to return to the big screen, with Lionsgate targeting a late 2027 or early 2028 release for the sequel to the blockbuster biopic Michael.According to AllHipHop.com, Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson provided the clearest indication yet of the studio’s plans during its first-quarter earnings call, telling analysts that production on the follow-up could begin as early as late 2026 or the beginning of 2027.Fogelson said the studio was currently looking at a...

ALGARVE, Portugal — Kanye West’s concert in Portugal’s Algarve has triggered a diplomatic controversy after Israel’s ambassador to Portugal called for the show to be cancelled, describing the rapper’s past statements as hate speech and accusing Portuguese authorities of allowing an artist with a record of antisemitic and pro-Nazi remarks to perform.According to AllHipHop.com, the controversy erupted on Friday as Israeli Ambassador Oren Rozenblat publicly urged authorities in Faro to stop West’s August 7 stadium performance, arguing that Portugal...

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Jorge Messi, the father of soccer star and Argentina captain Lionel Messi, died Saturday at a hospital in the central Argentina city of Rosario. He was 68.The Rosario-based Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys announced his death in a social media post that said he had undergone treatment in recent months for an unspecified illness. The post described him as “the pillar and the person who, with vision, rigor and affection, supported the career of the best...

GENEVA — FIFA has launched a robust defence of president Gianni Infantino after allegations concerning his alleged relationship with a former UEFA employee, describing the claims as “categorically untrue” and warning that suggestions of inappropriate conduct or breaches of football’s governing regulations are defamatory.The allegations, reported by The Telegraph, concern events dating back to Infantino’s tenure as UEFA general secretary between 2009 and 2016, before he was elected FIFA president.According to the newspaper, UEFA made a six-figure compensation payment...

HARARE — Africa’s fresh-fruit industry is undergoing a rapid transformation, with tropical and high-value fruit exports expanding sharply as producers tap into rising global demand for healthier foods, year-round fresh produce and premium berries.The continent’s tropical fruit exports have more than tripled over the past decade, reflecting a broader shift in African agriculture from traditional commodity production towards higher-value, export-oriented horticulture.Zimbabwe provides one of the clearest examples of this transformation. Its blueberry industry, which only entered commercial export production...