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WHEN the draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers was held at the beginning of July, there was little enthusiasm by the local football fans despite the tournament being significant for the local game.
For a nation that had been readmitted into international football a year earlier, the draw ought to have brought cheer.
However, the manner in which the Warriors had participated in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers and also the Cosafa Cup did not inspire any confidence.
The way in which coaches were chopped and changed was terrible and ruined any prospects of a proper team building exercise.
The biggest problem lay with the Zifa Normalisation Committee whose members were accused of micro-managing the national association and rendering the secretariat redundant.
Instead of normalising the game at all levels, the Zifa Normalisation Committee hierarchy seemed to take the opportunity to flex their Fifa-backed muscles and settle scores.
Chairman Lincoln Mutasa was always on the offensive each time he sat down for media interviews, always blaming third parties or third forces for some of the glaring blunders that the national association was making.
But the biggest let-down was the way they treated the senior men national team, the Warriors while arguing that they were preoccupied with fixing problems at grassroots level.
The group for the 2026 Fifa World Cup did not seem that difficult and it needed the Warriors to start their campaign positively and the sustain the good start.
However, the campaign got off to a bad start when the leadership opted to ride on coaches already engaged by local clubs and make them part-time gaffers despite it being the biggest football tournament on the planet.
Baltemar Britto was shared with Highlanders while Genesis Mangombe came from Dynamos, the country’s biggest clubs with their own pressures.
National team roles are full time and any other arrangement is a joke.
Coaches should have time to move across the country to look for talent and even extend the scouting beyond borders to ensure that the national team selections are informed by what is prevailing on the ground.
And expecting a coach with the main role at Highlanders and Dynamos to then be able to cast the Warriors net wide is a joke.
They will only be aware of their own players and those that shine in matches against the coaches’ teams.
As such, there was a problem with the decision to have an interim set-up and in the end it even ruined Britto’s own career as Highlanders decided against renewing his contract given the manner in which he had seemingly abandoned them in a season they had looked set for the title.
The gap between December last year and March this year was not utilised and when a Four-Nations tournament was arranged in Malawi, the Zifa NC took the Warriors back to Norman Mapeza.
He was to be dumped again.
There was another break, which could have been used to come up with a more progressive appointment but nothing happened until on the eve of the resumption of qualifiers with Manica Diamonds coach, Jairos Tapera taking over.
It was an experiment that flopped and the Warriors were virtually eliminated from the World Cup qualification equation while the team also failed to progress beyond the group stage at the Cosafa Cup.
It meant the one year under the Zifa NC had been wasted.
And when the draw for the 2025 AFCON qualifiers was held, the Warriors had dropped on the Fifa world rankings and this resulted in them being in the last pot based on their position on the standings.
Group favourites Cameroon, Kenya and Namibia were all ranked higher that the Warriors and it was, on paper, a rough challenge although the fact that two teams qualified presented Zimbabwe with an opportunity to sneak in.
Key developments took place at Zifa where Fifa decided to extend the Normalisation Committee’s tenure beyond the end of June. The trimmed leadership was told to focus on finalising the ZIfa constitution and have elections for a substantive leadership of the national association.
Mutasa and his team were asked to leave the other matters in the hands of the secretariat led by Yvonne Mapika Manwa and this included the affairs of the Warriors.
That was probably the turning point for Zimbabwe football, especially the Warriors. The coming in of German coach, Michael Nees, on short notice produced the minimum results expected of any campaign -qualification for a major tournament.
This one was more glorious as the Warriors finished second in a group whose matches started when they were the lowest ranked while they played all matches away from home -not the National Sports Stadium, not Rufaro and not Barbourfields.
There were no player protests, and everything flowed in peace. For that, the Zifa CEO and her team deserves plaudits, and it is a solid foundation for a better Warriors future and we can even start dreaming of a historic World Cup qualification in the next campaign.
The future looks bright for the Warriors and Nees has the potential to build a solid squad to last many campaigns if the talent that has availed itself is anything to go by.
A new ZIfa leadership is expected in January and the events between July and November this year have shown that our football’s development can easily reach desired levels if there is no interference from the executive.
The Warriors have never progressed beyond the opening round at AFCON and it looks like they can break the jinx at the 2025 tournament and whoever forms the next Zifa executive committee should remember that the team can only thrive when there is order in the cockpit.
Online Reporter