Chidzambwa reassigned

Zimbabwe’s most successful football coach, Chidzambwa, was one of the 15 officials and players slapped with life bans by Zifa following the conclusion of investigations into Asiagate by the association’s Independent Ethics Committee. Chidzambwa remains free to coach in South Africa because world football governing body is yet to endorse the decisions taken by Zifa, to enable the sanctions to have a worldwide effect, and the Switzerland-based organisation has requested for more information on the case before it can act.
Chidzambwa, who did not appear before the IEC after challenging the composition of the panel in the High Court, is fighting the ban and has already engaged a South African lawyer to battle his case within the Fifa corridors.
He has also instructed his lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, to challenge the ban in the Administrative Court.
Black Leopards chairman, David Thidiela, who has stood by Chidzambwa through this storm, feels the Zimbabwean coach needs space, away from the hotbed of directing operations on the bench and conducting training sessions, to focus on his legal battles to clear his name.
Sources said Thidiela feels the case has been diverting his coach’s focus from the team and the Zimbabwean needs time, away from the pressures of preparing and coaching the team on Match Day, to fight his battles back home.
“An arrangement has been reached for Sunday to be the director of coaching at the club while a new coach is brought into the fold who will handle the daily business of preparing the team and handling its Match Day responsibilities,” said the sources.
“An announcement is due either on Tuesday or Wednesday but that position has been reached and both parties have agreed.
“The club’s owners feel the coach’s focus has been affected, in recent weeks, by what is happening in his country concerning all these stories about match-fixing and the sentences that are being handed out.
“Since the coach has made it clear that he will fight to clear his name, the club feels he needs more time, away from the pressure zone of preparing the players and what happens during matches and that is why another coach is coming to the team.
“But the mere fact that the club have found a place for him in an office, where he prepares technical reports and made him a director within their structures, is a huge message that they are helping him in his fight because there is a special relationship that has been built between the two parties over the past few years.”
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Chidzambwa were fruitless last night while there was no official comment from Black Leopards’ officials either.
Black Leopards have only lost once in eight league matches this season, going down to Kaizer Chiefs at Soccer City in Johannesburg, while their other defeat, in the Telkom Knockout Cup, came at the hands of the other Soweto giants, Orlando Pirates.
Lidodha Dhuva have, however, won just one league match and drawn six and lie in 11th place, nine points adrift of leaders Chiefs, with nine points to their credit.
At the weekend, Leopards appeared to be cruising to a big victory against Moroka Swallows, away from home, but conceded a last-gasp goal in a 2-2 draw.