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Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
CAPS United coach Lloyd Chitembwe feels the criteria used to select the Warriors team playing in the CHAN qualifiers is designed to give certain clubs an unfair competitive edge over others.
The local band of Warriors is currently in South Africa where they are looking to overturn a 3-0 deficit at the hands of Eswatini and progress to the final round of the qualifiers.
The team is under the tutelage of Ngezi Platinum Stars coach Takesure Chiragwi and is dominated by players who the national head coach Michael Nees believes will form the core of the Warriors in the not-so-distant future.
However, there are seniors in that team including arguably the best player at CAPS United this season Godknows Murwira, Brian Banda, Obriel Chirinda, Mthokozisi Msebe, Martin Mapisa and Emmanuel Jalai.
And Chitembwe, whose team travels to Shamva for a date against title-favourites Simba Bhora has questioned why some teams, including CAPS United, have been deprived the privilege to have their best players while others like Simba Bhora have theirs available.
Besides Murwira, Chitembwe’s charges also have Junior Bunjira in the national team while Simba Bhora, who have a number of outstanding players this season including Walter Musona, Tymon Machope and Webster Tafa have just Msebe, who hardly saw game time until recently in the Warriors fold.
Chitembwe’s claims hold water given that even the Dynamos duo of Jalai and Mapisa who will play the second leg of the Eswatini showdown didn’t travel to Botswana for the first instalment although Zimpapers Sport is reliably informed they had been included in the team in the first place.
But they were “excused” after Dynamos reportedly pleaded to have them first play in the Chibuku Super Cup semi-finals against Manica Diamonds last Sunday but the same “privilege” wasn’t extended to their opponents whose pleas to have Thubelihle Jubane excused were out-rightly ignored.
As fate would have it, Manica Diamonds were eliminated on penalties after conceding a late equalizing goal and coach Jairos Tapera was reading the same script as Chitembwe calling out the unfair criteria used to pick up the national team.
“It’s very difficult to comment on matters that involve the national team for fear of undue reprisals from certain quarters of the society but all the same it is good to say out wrongs and that won’t change things.
“Look, I am disappointed like I have always said. Surely I would want to have all my players play for the national team because this is the reason why it is very hard to try and improve them so that ultimately they play for the national team.
“I am a product of that development. I even went on to enjoy the benefits of playing and coaching the national team and I have always shared this with the players saying until you play for the national team, that’s when you realise how far you have come,” said Chitembwe.
“So I am always happy for my players whenever they are called into the national team but it is the criteria in which players are selected that I am obviously not happy about. The moment there is a systematic arrangement to try and disadvantage another team, it becomes a problem.
“Look, this is what my mind is telling me. Maybe I am wrong or right but this is what my mind is telling me.
“If we are denied the privilege to use our best players surely even our opponents must also be denied the same.
“Look, surely Walter (Musona) has been the outstanding performer but Simba Bhora were given the right to use him last weekend in the Chibuku Super Cup and this week as well and for us without a single green of doubt, Godknows (Murwira) and Junior (Bunjira) have been our outstanding performers but we have been denied the opportunity to have them play on Saturday (today) which is very unfair.”
Chitembwe first became critical of ZIFA and Nees’ actions last month after he was denied the opportunity to field Murwira in the Harare Derby with Nees holding on to the defender ahead of Zimbabwe’s 2025 Africa Cup of Nations double-header qualifiers against Namibia in South Africa.
CAPS United beat Dynamos 2-1 in that match, but Chitembwe made it known that he was not happy with how Nees had acted and branded the German “a clown”.
Nees, in response, while in South Africa with the Warriors insinuated that Chitembwe might have been under pressure when he said that.
But Chitembwe this week reckoned Nees cannot lecture him on pressure for he has seen enough as a player and coach saying what the German had said was actually confirmation of his being a clown and his (Nees) pressure suggestion could as well be just the joke of the century.
“But at the end of the day, if I say these things you know some people will talk about pressure. But unfortunately I am not the person to be lectured on pressure. Only novices that are new in football will question my pedigree about these things,” added Chitembwe.
“I have represented my country more than 43 times and even went on to be the assistant coach for my national team. I qualified for AFCON as a player and for CHAN and AFCON as a coach and those are qualifications and no one should talk out there about pressure. You know the irony is that those people (Nees0, I am yet to hear about their participation even at provincial level where they come from let alone their national team.
“So it’s a very serious joke. Probably the joke of the century for someone who has not tasted to lecture me about pressure; that must be the joke of the century.”
Fixtures:
Today: Ngezi Platinum v Bikita Minerals (Baobab Stadium), Telone v Herentals (Ascot), Simba Bhora v Caps United (Wadzanai Stadium) Bulawayo Chiefs v Arenel Movers’ (Luveve Stadium) Yadah FC v ZPC Kariba (Heart Stadium)
Tomorrow: Chegutu Pirates v Chicken Inn (Baobab Stadium) Dynamos v FC Platinum (Rufaro Stadium), Hwange v Manica Diamonds (Colliery) Highlanders v GreenFuel (B/F)
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