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Phillip Zulu in LEEDS, England
WELCOME on board Norman Mapeza.
The die has been cast and our expectations for a possible World Cup qualification in Qatar 2022 are still as high. The long-awaited departure of Zdravko Logarusic was the best news to the majority of football-loving Zimbabweans.
Unfortunately, ZIFA have set a precedent for repeated failure, by appointing the wrong personnel at every turn.
Probably we had forgotten about Brazilian coach Valinhos, whose poor stint continuously reminds us of the consequences of hiring a foreign coach, without due diligence.
Loga single-handedly wrecked the little gains we had struggled to achieve before his arrival. It’s still a mystery to understand how we got hooked up with such a clueless and hapless coach.
Watching ZIFA president Felton Kamambo on video trying to justify why they opted for such mediocrity, one can understand the challenges of administration in our game.
We were not told why Joey Antipas was not engaged after the few games in interim capacity, nor did we hear of any shortcomings he had.
A sad recollection of these events, one can fully understand how the football leadership have disrespected fellow citizens, in the guise of hiring “a foreign expert’’ at such a huge financial cost.
This is what we need to fully digest and educate ourselves that even Mapeza, or whoever shall seek to serve his country as coach, is at risk of people, in the corridors of power, scuttling our quest to prosper.
I wish Mapeza well simply because he has to do a great job for us to win the next games against Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa.
That is how demanding the task at hand is and, by any seriousness of intent, we have to believe in our abilities, and pedigree to achieve these targets, in a short space of time.
I once applied to become the national team coach in 2010 when the high profile drama of Valinhos started and wrecked our game for a very long time.
What continuously cripples our football is not the calibre of coaches being hired by ZIFA but, the recklessness of a vicious cycle of lack of knowledge of how football works in our federation.
The simple question is — what has caused our football to fail dismally on this long stretch? I bet nobody in ZIFA has a clue.
I guess they are all gripped with doomsday delusions that they’re unleashing on our football terrain day in day out.
I won’t judge Mapeza the coach at this juncture of his new journey.
I can only wish him well when I know that he is being asked to ride a hyena by witchdoctors who have never even rode on a donkey.
Mapeza is being asked to provide answers for something that is beyond his capability, within this short stint, and we all know that it won’t end well.
ZIFA have never come out clean to seek a discourse, with all stakeholders involved with football, and try to open serious critical discussions, engage counsel where possible and allow divergent ideas to give directions of what should be done.
How does ZIFA have an understanding of what needs to be done when they cannot identify their failures to the public.
Here is an association that find comfort in continuous ignorance of what is right.
Everyone at ZIFA is in denial of what is common knowledge that our football needs new ideas, critical thinkers and strategic planning.
We are simply recycling failed policies as Mapeza is plunged into the deep end.
The public has to demand a full investigation from the media practitioners, and the broader community of our sport, we have to take ZIFA by the horns in order to tame the lacklustre freefall in our football.
Mapeza is just one more victim on the horizon, ready to be consumed by the monsters in the game.
Online Reporter