Online Reporter
IT’S very clear that ZIFA’s appointment of Romanian coach Marian “Mario” Marinica to take charge of the Warriors, for the next twelve months, has not been received warmly by the majority of football fans in this country.
It’s also clear that there is a big constituency which feels that this is yet another poor decision by the ZIFA leaders and is questioning whether he was the best man for the job.Mario’s first competitive game in charge of the Warriors will be against the Pharaohs of Egypt — the same team which ended his time as the coach of the Malawi Flames.
ZIFA highlighted the success which Mario had with the Flames at the 2021 AFCON finals as proof that, given the right conditions and support, the Romanian coach can perform wonders.That Flames team were eliminated in the Round of 16.
What ZIFA didn’t tell the nation is that Mario’s Flames only needed one win in the group, a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Warriors, for them to qualify for the knockout phase.
Mario, who is said to favour a type of the game called helicopter football, ended up being fired from his job amid fury among the Flames fans.What ZIFA should also have done was to highlight Mario’s recent work, in charge of Liberia, because that is more important than what the coach was doing with Malawi four years ago.
Records show that Mario was in charge of Liberia during the 2025 AFCON qualifiers and the West African country had a disastrous campaign.
Mario’s Liberia finished bottom of their group, with only four points to their credit, after winning just one game and drawing one other game. So, basically, what ZIFA have done is that they have taken a coach who failed to guide his team to the AFCON finals and gambled on him to be successful at the same Nations Cup for which his team failed to qualify.
The ZIFA bosses are gambling that Mario can take the Warriors beyond the group stages simply because he did the same with Malawi four years ago.
That is a huge gamble which ZIFA have taken because taking a team into the Round of 16 cannot be used as a barometer of success for a football coach. The best football coaches take their teams to the semi-finals and final of the AFCON and while we understand that it is difficult for us to get such quality of coaches, because we simply can’t afford to pay many of them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we should always settle for mediocre coaches.
The outrage in our football right now is being driven by Mario’s recent past which shows that he was fired in Malawi and Liberia because of poor results. This is what matters and this is something which ZIFA should explain to the fans as to why they ended up ignoring all this.
This is the people’s game and every decision which ZIFA make should always consider the interests of the people.
Mathew Masinge