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Harare Bureau
ZIFA were left with a lot of egg on their face yesterday after the Warriors failed to leave as scheduled for their 2014 World Cup qualifier against Guinea in yet another embarassing administrative boob by the association. The country’s football controlling body failed to secure air tickets on time for the Warriors’ delegation to undertake their flight from Harare to Conakry.
The trip to West Africa, which had been scheduled for yesterday, was cancelled at the last minute.
Zimbabwe’s 33-member delegation was supposed to leave at 1:30pm yesterday via Johannesburg where they would have connected to Dakar, Senegal, in the evening and arrive in Conakry this morning.
The journey, however, could not materialise as the association had not secured enough air tickets and frantic efforts were still being made, through the Zimbabwe Football Trust, to ensure the team leaves today.
It was not clear yesterday whether the team will be able to travel or not but officials at Zifa House said everything was now on course, after the problems they encountered yesterday, for the team to leave for their West African assignment today.
The new arrangement would mean that they will arrive in Conakry tomorrow morning and then have a single practice session at the match venue, just 24 hours before kick-off.
If the Warriors had left yesterday, it would have given the players more time to rest from the effects of the transcontinental trip, and also more time to train and adjust to the conditions in the Atlantic port city of Conakry.
The match has been scheduled for 5pm (Zimbabwean time) on Sunday.
Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, spent the better part of the day running around trying to rescue the mission and was not available for comment.
The latest episode, which comes just when the team is still trying to recover from the effects of the morale-sapping 4-2 home defeat at the hands of Egypt last weekend, exposed Zifa’s lack of planning.
Zifa’s battered image has scared away potential sponsors and the national association has set up a football trust which, among other things, is tasked with raising funds for the national teams.
But it hasn’t been an easy task for the trustees and their case hasn’t been helped by the fact that Zifa have failed to produce their audited statements of accounts and this year the annual meeting ended without the audited accounts being presented.
Why the presentation of the audited accounts continue to be deferred, even when it is clear that this is having a huge negative impact in terms of keeping potential sponsors away from Zifa’s corner, defies logic.
Zifa president, Cuthbert Dube, who has been the sole saviour of the association among the board members, when it comes to injecting funds to service the operations of the organisation, is away in Brazil.
Dube is a member of the 2013 Fifa Confederations Cup organising committee, which held its last meeting at Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Palace Hotel yesterday, ahead of the start of the tournament tomorrow.
The chairman of the committee is Vitaly Mutko of Russia while the vice-chairman is Jacques Anouma of Cote d’Ivoire.
The other members of the committee are Marco Polo del Nero (Brazil), Junji Ogura (Japan), Hafez Al Medlej (Saudi Arabia), Sebastian Bauza (Uruguay), Armand Duka (Albania), Placide Engandzas (Gabon), Yves Jean Bart (Haiti), Eric Labrador (Puerto Rico), Bill Moran (New Zealand), Praful Patel (India), Borislav Mihaylov (Bulgaria) and football legend Davor Suker (Croatia).
Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, then held a media briefing, after that meeting, where he addressed the world ahead of the start of the Confederations Cup.
Jose Maria Marin, President of the Local Organising Committee, gave an insight on what they discussed at their indaba.
“We had a very productive meeting. We talked about the latest organisational details of the Fifa Confederations Cup,” he said.
“After years of hard work, now it is time for the games to begin. This Saturday we witness the start of the biggest football tournament in Brazil since the 1950 Fifa World Cup.
“The fans will be the life and soul of this party across the six cities and the six great stadiums. I am absolutely sure that the eight national teams taking part have all the facilities they need to excel.
“However, I urge all fans that are going to go to Brasilia to arrive early to avoid standing in queues and see the beautiful Opening Ceremony.”
Africa will be represented by the Super Eagles of Nigeria who were scheduled to leave Johannesburg yesterday, after playing a World Cup qualifier in Namibia on Wednesday, to fly to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
While the Super Eagles were flying, the Warriors were grounded.
Team manager, Shariff Mussa, yesterday said he was not sure if it was the unavailability of funds which caused the hiccup but was confident the team would leave today.
Mussa, however, is not part of the delegation that is travelling to Guinea as he had excused himself from the commitment.
He will be replaced on the trip by Under-20 team manager, Patrick Mutesva.
“We were hoping the team would go today (yesterday) but we gather that there weren’t enough tickets for everyone before that afternoon flight,” said Mussa.
“The bookings are done by the secretariat and I am told there was a system breakdown where the tickets were being processed.
“So the team can only be able to leave tomorrow (today),” said Mussa.
The squad, which had re-grouped on Tuesday, was unhappy with the setback as they learnt at the last minute that the trip had been cancelled.
And as it became clear that the journey was doomed, coach Klaus-Dieter Pagels and his technical team had to organise a training session at Italian Sports Club late in the afternoon.
However, Dynamos defender Partson Jaure could not take part in the sesssion as he was suffering from a sore throat.
Midfielder Ovidy Karuru, who received a knock on his ankle, had a light session on his own before retiring early.
There was a huge scare towards the end of the session when chief striker Knowledge Musona landed awkwardly on his back in a tussle for the ball with Tafadzwa Rusike.
The German-based forward could not complete the training session.
Although Zimbabwe are out of the reckoning for the 2014 World Cup, assistant coach Lloyd Mutasa yesterday said they were aiming for a positive result in Guinea.
Mutasa said there were disappointed that they could not travel as planned yesterday but said they had to put that behind them and stay focused on the job at hand. “It’s normal as human beings to be frustrated if you had planned a journey and then something beyond your control crops up and makes it impossible,” said Mutasa.
“Now it’s a matter of adjusting to the new arrangement but obviously it has its repercussions.
“Most of us have never been to Guinea before but we have gathered that the temperatures are quite high with some element of rain at this time of the year.
“So as professionals, we will have to carry all the equipment in preparation and try as much to acclimatise in that short period of time. We will probably have a light training on Saturday at the match venue to loosen up,” said Mutasa.
Zimbabwe are bottom of Group G with a single point from four games while Guinea are second with seven points.
The West Africans trail Egypt by five points.
“It’s a tough assignment considering that Guinea are not a small team and that they are still in with a chance.
“Obviously, they know that they have to win against us in their backyard to improve their chances but we are not going to make it easy for them.
“We might be a young team but I am confident of the players we have. I am sure with the right frame of mind they are capable of turning things around,” said Mutasa.
Online Reporter