CUTHBERT DUBE'S week in glorious sunshine came to a fitting close yesterday with Cosafa saluting him for his historic appointment onto the Fifa organising committee for the 2013 Confederations Cup.

Dube was inducted onto the powerful Fifa committee, which will organise the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil, in a landmark appointment that has injected a breath of fresh air into a Zifa family perennially stalked by chaos.

The Zifa boss becomes the first Zimbabwean to hold such a high position within Fifa's structures and he toasted his appointment by saying it was an indication of the world football governing body's confidence in his administrative capacity.

The Confederations Cup is the dress rehearsal of the World Cup and is staged a year before the global football showcase.

Given that it gives Fifa a rough idea of the preparedness of the host country to stage the World Cup, the organising committee have to do a lot of work and membership of that committee also guarantees a lot of traveling.

Dube has seen his reputation questioned, in recent months, by allegations that he might have corruptly influenced councilors to vote for him in the countdown to the Zifa elections two years ago.

The allegations remain largely unfounded since no concrete proof is yet to be provided to buttress such claims.

But Fifa's appointment of the Zifa boss onto one of its most powerful committees has reinvigorated Dube who believes it shames those who have been battling to soil his image.

Yesterday, Dube was the recipient of more good news with the Cosafa leadership saying his appointment onto the Fifa committee was indicative of the strides that Zifa has taken under his leadership.

Cosafa chief operations officer, Sue Destombes, said the appointment was a feather in the cap of the game not only in Zimbabwe but also in the entire region.

"On behalf of the President and Executive Committee of Cosafa, we offer our sincere congratulations on your recent appointment to the Fifa Organising Committee for the Confederations Cup," wrote Destombes.

"This is indeed a feather in the cap of both Zimbabwe football and the Cosafa region and is indicative of the strides made recently by the Zimbabwe Football Association under your leadership."

Dube yesterday said he was humbled by the support that was coming from the Cosafa leadership.

"Just like the Fifa appointment, I believe the message coming from Cosafa is that, for all the challenges we are facing as an association, we are battling hard to move forward and they can see real progress," said Dube.

"It has been a challenging period, especially for me, because the financial situation at Zifa remains very depressing and every time I have to bail out this and that facet of the association just to make things tick.

"I only returned to office on Monday but, in the last five days, I have already personally paid for the salaries of the staff at Zifa and the salary of the national team coach.

"The country will find it hard to believe that since we appointed Norman Mapeza as coach of the national team, not a single cent - in terms of the payment of his salary - has come directly from the Zifa coffers.

"Every penny that Mapeza has received as his salary since day one has come from funds that I had to source from my private businesses and, which I had to lend to Zifa to resolve the crisis.

"But what is crucial right now is that we take full advantage of the goodwill that is coming from the international organisations so that we can move our game forward because we have some serious assignments that are on the way."

Dube's appointment to the Fifa's committee was revealed in a letter sent to the Zifa president by the world football governing body secretary-general Jerome Valcke.

"Following the announcement by the Fifa president at the 61st Fifa Congress in Zurich on 31 May and 1 June 2011, the composition of the Fifa standing committee has been revised and completely restructured," wrote Valcke.

‘In this connection we are very pleased to inform you that you have been appointed as a member of our organising committee for the Fifa Confederations Cup.

‘We will inform you about the date of the next meeting in due course . . . we wish you success and enjoyment in this new role at Fifa and look forward to welcoming you in Zurich."

Dube will certainly be charmed by the guarantees coming from Fifa's senior officials with the Fifa manager for development programmes in Africa, Franscesco Bruscoli, who yesterday assured Zifa that the world football governing body will do all it can to support the association this year.

Franscesco wrote to Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, asking him to send another request for the transfer of US$75 000 for use on the Goal Project.

"I hear that the project is advancing well and that you are planning to work on the next one with Ashford (Mamelodi) in a few days," wrote Bruscoli.

"I would like to assure you that we will do our best to support your federation in 2012 with all additional funds that we will be able to earmark."

Dube said 2012 will have to be a defining year for Zifa and Zimbabwe football and was confident that his association, which remains saddled by a ballooning debt, would get most of their objectives right.

"Obviously, the issue of funding remains a big problem but I cannot just sit and watch while everything comes to a stop because I accepted the challenge to become Zifa chairman and I have to deal with the crisis that we face today," said Dube.

"It's a huge task funding an association but then if I don't do it we might just as well close shop.

"We remain humbled by the support that is coming from Fifa and Cosafa and we hope it will also translate to support coming from our own companies so that sponsorship can filter into Zifa's coffers and we can have money to run our projects. We have an assembly meeting coming at the end of the month and it also comes at a huge cost but we need it to discuss a lot of challenges facing us right now and how we can move forward."

The Zifa boss said he was set to meet Mapeza next week to review the coach's work in the past year, the tough conditions that he has worked under and plan for the next assignments.

"I have been hearing stories that Mapeza was getting frustrated and wanted to walk away but I have asked him for a meeting so that we can discuss a number of things because the national team has some big assignments soon,' said Dube.

"When you look at every away game that the national team has played under Mapeza, you can see that it was preceded by chaos in the way the preparations were handled and we want to put a stop to that.

"The coach is ultimately responsible for the results but we have to give him the right working conditions too and we will be discussing all that when we meet because the Burundi game is just around the corner."