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Sports Correspondent
FORMER Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede says those who are heaping blame on Cuthbert Dube and his board for the Zimbabwe Warriors early exit from the Afcon 2015 qualifiers are not only short-sighted but looking for “an easy excuse”.Gumede, who is now Highlanders Football Club chief executive officer said there was a need to focus on junior development to stem failure by the senior national football team to qualify for big tournaments.
Gumede says the haphazard selection of players for the national team would always be the Achilles heel, and that the country needed to implement programmes that encompassed juniors.
Zimbabwe were booted out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations at the preliminary stage by Tanzania, 3-2 on aggregate, which resulted in the blame game with different reasons being thrown around and some quarters calling for Dube and his board to resign.
However, Gumede said those who were heaping blame on Zifa president, Dube and his board were clueless.
“I think it’s myopic to blame Dube and his board for the failure by the Warriors to qualify for the 2015 Afcon tournament when we don’t have a clear junior structure for national teams, that is where we should start instead of throwing around the blame,’’ said Gumede.
“We should come up with a comprehensive strategy that will start at under-17, incorporate under-20 and under-23 players and we build up from there to the senior national team. Without a coherent approach to building the national squad we will always fail to qualify for these important tournaments,” he said.
Gumede said the situation was not helped by the fact that Warriors coach, Ian Gorowa was based in South Africa and had no time to watch players in the local leagues and select the best from there.
He said it was unfortunate he ended up being influenced by some journalists in Harare in the selection of the national team hence compromising the quality of the squad.
“How can you then blame Cuthbert Dube in such instances when the coach doesn’t traverse the country to watch players and select the best? Actually had it not been for Dube we wouldn’t have gone to Tanzania in the first place because he contributed a lot financially to enable us to fulfil the fixtures,” he said.
Gumede said contrary to speculative reports that the national junior teams had been banned from Caf tournaments following failure to fulfill fixtures they are still eligible to play as the continental body had not sanctioned them.
“Caf never wrote to us saying we are banned, so journalists have merely been writing their own opinions and not facts on that issue. We will be participating in whatever tourneys are held and we can utilise them to improve our squads,” he said.
Gumede said if people within the football world were intelligent they would thank Dube for his efforts in using his personal resources to fund the Warriors instead of demonising him.
“Dube has contributed immensely in assisting the Warriors financially and we should thank him for that but this is his last term and we should start identifying who will take over from him and look at what qualities such a person should have in terms of experience, financial muscle and contacts,” he said.
The veteran soccer administrator said it was unfortunate the new Ministry of Sport had taken too long to settle down and start working.
He said there has been little in terms of action from the ministry led by Andrew Langa with officials only appearing to officiate at events with nothing tangibleto offer.
Gumede’s sentiments were echoed by former Zifa board member (competitions), Benedict Moyo who said he had presented a blueprint during his tenure that would have laid the groundwork for the development of quality national teams in the country, but it was not adhered to.
“I came up with a blueprint that was welcomed by everyone in the board as it advocated that we put focus on junior national teams instead of calling players who have failed before.
“It was a blueprint that everyone agreed we should follow religiously and we dismantle structures already in existence and give focus to under-17, under-20 and under -23 players. It emphasised strengthening of developmental structures but nothing happened and unfortunately the usual excuse of lack of finance was the constant song,” he said.
Moyo said it was unfortunate Zifa ended up employing shortcuts as they tried to qualify for the 2015 AFCON scheduled for Morocco.
“The reason why junior national team coaches have been made part of the senior national team technical bench is because of the blue print. Juniors were supposed to be given a lot of training time and resources and we groom them to become better, as they matured but then we decided to bring back old horses who have failed the race before and now we think they can produce miracles.
“The focus should be on grassroots development with the creation of provincial juniors teams from their respective leagues with regional teams emerging from where juniors would be selected for national teams,” he said.
Online Reporter