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WHEN world football governing body FIFA lifted Zimbabwe’s isolation from the international game on July 11 last year, the decision was greeted with elation as it afforded the Warriors another chance to come back and compete with other teams.
FIFA also announced the appointment of Lincoln Mutasa’s five-member Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of ZIFA for an initial year with their mandate including reforming Zimbabwean football and ensuring the national men and women’s teams and the youth sides returned to action.
Sadly, the Normalisation Committee have so far been a disappointment and have exhibited a very slow pace in which they have gone about reforming football, whose growth has been pledged by a plethora of problems spanning over decades.
While the majority of the ordinary fans do not closely follow the boardroom gymnastics at ZIFA, they are no doubt more passionate about their Warriors.
It is against this background that ZIFA’s failure to deal decisively with the appointment of a substantive coach for the senior team has hugely disappointed the fans in particular and the nation at large.
That the Normalisation Committee enjoy the goodwill of FIFA who have availed special funding for Zimbabwe’s return to international football should have made Mutasa’s job easier.
Instead Mutasa, himself, a former player and an ex-chairman of the Dynamos executive committee, should know better about the importance of planning for any team to succeed.
It has left many people dumbfounded how ZIFA continue to dither on the appointment of a national coach.
In the 1o months that the Normalisation Committee have been in charge of the Warriors they have already had three coach changes and are now in search of the fourth man to preside over the senior team.
First, they appointed Warriors’ history-making coach Sunday Chidzambwa for the international friendly against Namibia, which was part of commemorations for the inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
They then went for Brazilian Baltemar Brito, who took charge of a friendly against Botswana and the opening two 2026 World Cup qualifying games against Rwanda and Nigeria.
After discarding Brito, ZIFA seemed to have been angling for Norman Mapeza as they tasked him to take the Warriors to Malawi for a Four-nation tournament last, ostensibly to prepare the team for the resumption of the World Cup qualifiers.
As we published earlier in the week, ZIFA have now decided to re-start the process of searching for a Warriors coach.
We wonder whether for all their combined experience with the game, the Normalisation Committee members are aware that time is not on the Warriors side, neither is it on their side.
The Warriors needed a substantive coach by August last year and should not be waiting to have a new gaffer just days before they play Lesotho on June 7 and South Africa on June 11.
One of their Group C opponents Nigeria have chosen the path of continuity by appointing former Super Eagles forward Finidi George who was an assistant when they finished runners-up to Cote d’Ivoire at the Africa Cup of Nations final in Abidjan on February 11.
For Zimbabwe, the incoming coach is only set to meet with the players for the first time on the eve of their crucial back-to-back matches against Lesotho and South Africa.
That is a clear recipe of how not to prepare for such a tough task like a World Cup qualifier.
Serious nations actually use five-year plans for each World Cup knowing that it is the ultimate prize in global football.
As it stands, the Warriors chances are being wrecked even before they have kicked a ball because those in charge of the game are failing to identify a coach for the team.
There is now a worrying danger that the incoming coach might not take responsibility of the results of the matches against Lesotho at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg and the South Africa at Free State stadium in Bloemfontein.
This is because by the time the new coach agrees a deal with ZIFA, player call-up should have long been completed with release letters sent to their various clubs at home and aboard.
After the World Cup assignments, the Warriors are also expected to partake in the COSAFA Cup, a key regional competition that has been used to give mostly local players the platform to stake a claim in places for the regular national team.
Should ZIFA as they have often done before, settle for a foreign coach, he will also need more time to adapt and understand the culture of the Zimbabwean game and that might not be possible in the less than month the gaffer would have assumed office.
ZIFA could also face a selection dilemma if as happened in September last year when they advertised for the post, more than 100 applicants submit their CVs for the job.
The deadline for the submission of the applications is tomorrow.
Maybe the Normalisation Committee are lacking care because their time in office is almost up but Zimbabweans do care a lot about their Warriors and certainly deserve better.
Online Reporter