Online Reporter
LAST week, ZIFA finally wielded the axe and fired Warriors coach Michael Nees after a string of poor results in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
The country’s football leaders have been under intense pressure from the fans after the Warriors finished bottom of their group and without a win in their 10 games in the World Cup matches.
A 0-1 defeat at the hands of Lesotho, who were supposed to be the whipping boys of the group, sealed Nees’ fate and it means that another coach will be in charge of the Warriors at the 2025 AFCON finals in Morocco.
Nees helped us qualify for the AFCON finals but his dismissal means that he will not be in charge of the team in Morocco.
Given that there is very little time now before we play our first game in Morocco, it’s very clear that ZIFA can’t come up with a coach who doesn’t know anything about the Warriors’ players.
It’s very likely that ZIFA will have no choice but to go for a local coach, with an initial mandate to try and impress at this tournament, with decisions then being made after the tournament.
It also means that we will keep a tradition where we have been guided by the local coaches at all the AFCON finals we have graced.
It’s very likely that Kaitano Tembo, who was added to the Warriors coaching staff recently, will be part of our technical team at AFCON although we are not sure which role he will be playing.
He could either be the head coach or an assistant.
It’s also very likely that Peter Ndlovu, who has just completed his latest coaching course, will also be part of the technical team although we are not sure in what capacity.
Whatever the case, what we know is that we can’t get any worse than what we had become under the Nees experiment which should have been avoided in the first place.
Lincoln Mutasa, who was the ZIFA president when Nees was a surprise pick for the Warriors job, has kept his silence when he is supposed to be telling us what really led them to settle for the German coach.
His pathetic record alone, just three wins since his arrival in Africa more than 20 years ago, should have disqualified him from the job.
How Mutasa and his team felt that this was the man who, despite having not graced the AFCON finals before, could help us do better at the tournament, defies logic.
We have been saying that the ZIFA leaders need to be held accountable for some of their outrageous decisions and there should be consequences.
We have proposed that such ZIFA leaders should, in future, be barred from holding any public office in sport in this country for gambling with the country’s emotions with their crazy appointments of our national team coaches.
It’s the only way we can ensure that in future we won’t get the likes of Nees again.
Mathew Masinge