Mhlauri’s final call

substantive coach or the association will open the doors to other candidates with Norman Mapeza emerging as the favourite to bounce back.
The country’s football leadership has been negotiating with Mhlauri hoping to strike a deal that would prise him away from the United States, where he has set up base for the last three years, to reunite with the Warriors.
But with time running out on the Zifa board to appoint a substantive coach, with the Warriors set for a tough duel in Mali next month, the story is changing rapidly and the association now desperately wants to have their man in place.
There has also been an outpouring of public emotion with fans urging the Zifa board to act quickly to end the ad-hoc set-up in the Warriors and install a substantive technical team that could make long-term plans for the team.
Yesterday Zifa president Cuthbert Dube ended his silence on the key issue related to the appointment of the Warriors’ head coach and, speaking to The Herald, revealed that the time had come for his board to put an end to their search for the gaffer.
The Harare business executive, who is set to mark his first year as Zifa boss next month, said while they remained committed to engaging Mhlauri, time was certainly no longer on their side and the coach needed to decide now whether to come on board or remain in the United States.
“We have been speaking to Mhlauri and he has told us his conditions and I have been saying that while Zifa does not have the financial capacity, right now to meet some of the conditions, we are ready to go the extra mile to eventually get there,” said Dube.
“I have made it clear that I’m not only prepared to give my personal guarantees for that but we have also been talking to Fifa with a view of using part of the US$300 000 bonus, we are set to get soon, to help fund Mhlauri’s package.
“I have personally spoken to him and I have been emphasising that while he might have had problems with the previous board, this is a new Zifa board and we do things differently and although we have our financial challenges, owing largely to the huge debts we inherited, we are committed to improving the situation.
“We believe that we have been moving in a promising direction but the problem we now have is that we do not have time on our side for the negotiations to keep going on and on because we have a crucial game in Mali soon and we have to make decisions one way or the other.”
The Warriors, with two points from as many games in their 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers, have a make-or-break tie away to Mali in Bamako on March 27 needing a win to bounce back in contention and keep in touch with leaders Cape Verde who host, and are favoured to beat, bottom-placed Liberia during the same weekend.
Zimbabwe will then play back-to-back home games against Mali on June 5 and Liberia on September 4 before completing their programme with an away date against Cape Verde in Praia on October 9.
Although Dube refused to discuss Mhlauri’s package, saying it was confidential between the employer and their targeted employee, The Herald has it on good authority that the dreadlocked gaffer wants a cool tax-free US$10 000 monthly salary during the entire course of his contract.
Mhlauri also wants to cushion himself against the possibility of Zifa failing to raise funds to bankroll his package, long after he has put pen to paper, and has demanded to be paid the total value of 10 months of his salary in advance before he can start coaching the Warriors.
That would mean Zifa splashing out US$100 000 towards those costs alone and the association’s leadership has been juggling with the figures trying to find a way to provide cover for that expenditure.
“What is clear is that Zifa does not have financial resources right now but, like in any business, we are putting in place structures and projects that we believe will help us get the funds that we need in our operations, including financing the cost of the national team coach’s package,’ said Dube.
“We are set to receive some funds, too, from Fifa and we have been talking to them about the possibility of us using part of that towards the coach’s package.
“What can be guaranteed is that the cost of engaging the coach will be met without fail and we are committed towards providing that guarantee and we have had some encouraging discussions, centred on that, with Mhlauri.
“While things have not moved as fast as we might have wanted, in terms of concluding the negotiations and getting the coach here to start work, Mhlauri remains our first choice but our challenge now is that we can’t discuss this issue forever because of the Warriors’ crucial game next month.
“That is why I have taken a position, as the Zifa president, that Mhlauri has to commit himself to the job by the end of this month (Sunday), if he remains interested in our offer, and if doesn’t do that then we will have to consider other options.”
Mapeza, who was in charge of the Warriors during the final qualifying round of their 2011 CHAN campaign and in the first 2012 Nations Cup game against Liberia in Monrovia before walking away from the team, has pushed his way back into contention for a comeback show.
“My position remains that if we don’t get Mhlauri then we have to turn to Mapeza and give him the job so that he completes the remainder of our matches and, in the process, we also develop him so that he gets the necessary qualifications to boost his knowledge to help him in future assignments after the current qualifiers,” said Dube.
“I believe the issue of qualifications will have to be waived, if we don’t get Mhlauri, because we have a coach who has shown his capacity to do well with the team and, because of the situation we might find ourselves in, we can’t keep him away anymore.
“We can help him acquire the qualifications while he is working with the team and I always believed that even if we were to get Mhlauri, we still needed to have Mapeza working under him and learning the job, preparing him to take over if the head coach decided to move elsewhere.
“We have been in charge for a year now as a board and the time has come for us to be judged by what we do and not what we say and I can assure you that this issue related to the Warriors’ coach will be sorted out soon and we have to make a big move by next week.”
Madinda Ndlovu, who has been the Warriors’ caretaker coach since Mapeza walked away, is likely to remain within the structures as an assistant coach when the substantive appointments are made. Dube said the restructuring of the Warriors’ technical department was part of the changes being made everywhere within the Zifa structures, including the hunt for a chief executive officer, finance manager and media manager.
“Our decision to flight adverts asking for people to apply for these posts did not mean that we have no interest in engaging those holding the posts but we are just being transparent and, if they are the best candidates, they will get the jobs,” said Dube.