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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA have set in motion the search for the next Warriors coach as they advertise posts for the technical personnel to lead the country’s football teams back to the international stage following the recent lifting of the FIFA suspension.
The ZIFA Normalisation Committee, which was installed by FIFA last month, is currently setting up the structures and the committee’s chairman Lincoln Mutasa revealed yesterday that they have officially begun the hunt for national team coaches.
Mutasa told The Herald they were flighting job adverts for the posts of the Mighty Warriors as well as the Warriors and national age-group team coaches in the next two days.
“We will have the adverts maybe tomorrow (today) or the following day. We are advertising for all the national team posts from the Under-17, Under-20, Under-23 up to the senior teams,” he said.
The appointment of the Warriors coach in particular has been the hot topic among the local football enthusiasts following the FIFA World Cup draw, whose qualifying matches begin in November.
But the most immediate task is the African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifiers scheduled to start next month — which would mark the Warriors’ first international assignment after nearly two years on the sidelines.
The Normalisation Committee have given assurances the Warriors coach will be unveiled before the start of the qualifiers.
FC Platinum gaffer Norman Mapeza was the last coach to take charge of the national team, when he guided the Warriors to a first-round exit at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon in January 2022.
A month after the tournament, Zimbabwe were suspended by FIFA.
According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the qualifiers for the 2024 CHAN edition will commence in September.
The CHAN is a tournament reserved only for players plying their trade in their national leagues.
After the start of the CHAN qualifiers, the Warriors foreign legion are expected to jet in for the World Cup assignments, which are set for November.
For the World Cup qualifiers, the Warriors were drawn in Group C — which also includes West African giants Nigeria; neighbours and rivals South Africa; Benin; Rwanda; and Lesotho. Before those qualifiers, FIFA have set aside two international weeks in September and October.
The new Warriors coach will need time to scout for players ahead of a tight schedule.
Also, as part of Zimbabwe’s reintegration process, ZIFA had hoped to field the Mighty Warriors in the upcoming COSAFA Women’s Championship, set for next month in South Africa, but their request was turned down by the organisers.
The Mighty Warriors will have to wait a little bit longer before they can assemble for international football after they were left out of the programme, as the organisers had already finalised logistics for the tournament.
The team is also expected to resume international competitions under new brooms, amid revelations that ZIFA are set to advertise for the post of Mighty Warriors coach.
Platinum Royals coach Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda was the last head coach when the team featured in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in February last year, just before Zimbabwe were suspended from international football by FIFA.
Speaking on the sidelines of their meetings yesterday, Normalisation Committee chairman Mutasa, who was in the company of committee member and former Mighty Warriors coach Rosemary Mugadza, said they will have to wait for other assignments.
“We wanted to enter the team for the COSAFA tournament. Unfortunately, when the Normalisation Committee was set up the deadlines had passed. We tried to engage them but COSAFA informed us that they had 12 countries confirmed for the Championship.
“We are looking at other tournaments that might come up. We have a calendar of competitions for women’s football,” said Mutasa.
Before the FIFA suspension, the Mighty Warriors brand was waning and no longer featured in the women’s football conversations in the region.
In contrast, their neighbours South Africa and Zambia, have been on an upward trajectory and were among the continent’s representatives at the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals currently underway in New Zealand and Australia.
But during their peak, the Mighty Warriors would easily take these sides head-on.
Sadly, they have become a poor shadow of the team that reached loft heights and qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games.
“We will organise some friendly matches. It’s a day and a step at a time, said Mutasa.
The Mighty Warriors last featured in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifiers in February 2022, just before FIFA wielded the axe on Zimbabwe citing third party interference.
The Mighty Warriors had failed to qualify for the 2022 Nations Cup, having again fallen short for the 2018 edition.
But there is an air of optimism in the women’s football brand following the appointment of Mugadza, a former national team captain and coach, to the Normalisation Committee.
Women’s football stakeholders believe that the distinguished coach and CAF instructor, who is part of four-member committee tasked by FIFA to run the affairs of ZIFA, would be instrumental in highlighting the plight of women’s football.
The Mighty Warriors have achieved more than their male counterparts but have often failed to get enough recognition and support for their toils.
Mutasa said they were working on rebuilding both the men and women’s football, in the interim, by putting up structures.
The Normalisation Committee last week unveiled a new Referees Committee headed by Norman Matemera, as the first step.
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