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Grace Chingoma Sports Reporter
THE ZIFA secretariat is working on securing a secluded bubble venue which is not a hotel for the Warriors AFCON camp that is expected to start on Thursday.
In the wake of a more contagious Covid-19 strain, the association want a camp that can be sealed off and does not offer service to walk-in clients
The Warriors preparations received a major boost after Sports Commission undertook to bankroll the Warriors sojourn in Cameroon next month, with an approved budget of US$800 000 and $21 000 000.
The money will be availed to ZIFA’s secretariat to meet the Warriors camping costs, travel, and participation expenses up to the end of the group phase.
The association’s secretariat is working on the national team preparations in the absence of the ZIFA board that was suspended by the Sports Commission.
And the regulator has made the process smooth by committing to the financial part.
Today, the Warriors coach Norman Mapeza is expected to announce his 40-member-squad that has already been submitted and registered with CAF.
Already, the technical team is going to miss six players that are already out of contention through injuries and other reasons.
The European-based trio of Aston Villa midfielder Marvelous Nakamba, Brendan Galloway, and Marshal Munetsi has since been ruled out of the Nations Cup finals through injuries.
While Kaizer Chiefs Khama Billiat and Leicester starlet Tawanda Maswanhise are doubtful.
Billiat announced his retirement from the national team but ZIFA are hoping to persuade him to have a change of heart. Warriors’ manager Welly Mpandare and a delegation from ZIFA are scheduled to travel to Johannesburg. However, that plan has been affected by current Amakhosi strict bubble rules that have been employed to ensure that their players have minimal contact with the outside world. The Soweto giants are recovering from a huge Covid-19 bout that at one time almost the entire squad.
Maswanhise is yet to secure a Zimbabwean passport due to time constraints at his England club. ZIFA are still hoping that the 18-year-old who has committed to the national team cause will be able to travel to the Zimbabwean Embassy and make his application in time.
Although coach Mapeza is not going to pick new players that were registered to CAF last month, Zimbabwe made a special request to CAF which was said would be considered if the need arises to add new players in their squad.
“We had registered 40 players but we informed CAF that our local league is not active so it is difficult to work with a specific squad and requested for a special request so that we can be allowed to add some new players that originally were not part of the 40-member team.
They promised to look into the issue separately for Zimbabwe, so if the coach needs to add some players we might still have a chance to do that,” said Mpandare.
The manager that they are concerned with the surge of Covid-19 in the country and are not leaving anything to chance.
“We have looked at a number of options working with the medical team and we are in agreement that we need the safest place to host our camp and train under the safest conditions. So the hotel options are proving to be tricky, as we would really want a place that can be sealed off and not affected by walk-ins that would not be easier to monitor.
In Harare, those types of places can be found, and we are working on that since this variant is more aggressive in terms of spreading and we would want our camp to be safe and productive,” said Mpandare.
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