admincrisis, which shines through the body corporate or otherwise . . . and you cannot solve the coaching crisis without stabilising the administration bank at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
This much, and more, has finally been recognised by even the most ardent supporters of Warriors’ coach Norman Mapeza after another inevitable crash at the hands of Cape Verde in Praia, a result that added the coach to the long list of failures, bar only the duo of Sunday Chidzambwa and Charles Mhlauri in the history of the game.
They must now move on to addressing the underlying issues at the Friday Zifa board meeting but Cuthbert Dube, the Zifa president, must stop behaving and acting like the association is a jungle with no rules, objectives and ambitions by preempting the crucial forensic examination of the failure by rushing to say Mapeza is going nowhere.
The great Frenchman Zinedine Zidane famously asked “. . . why gold plate a Ferrari when the whole engine is gone . . . “, on the occasion of the indomitable Claude Makelele leaving Real Madrid in 2003, with
Florentino Perez announcing the impending arrival of galacticos like David Beckham.
Madrid have never been to the Champions League final since.
In the same week that Zimbabwe sealed their fate for the African Cup of Nations 2012 in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon by losing to Cape Verde under Mapeza’s watch, one of the game’s marquee figures, Carlo
Ancelloti gave a revealing interview to the La Republica, an authoritative voice in Italian sports.
He told the paper a bear is the best animal that resembles a coach’s life.
The lesson went like this: “When in the jungle (in football) and you meet a bear, you should not run (rush decisions), because the bear is faster than a man, nor climb a tree (refuse counsel) because the bear will
climb a tree too, nor jump into the water (hide mistakes by disappearing) because bears can swim . . .
“You need to walk backwards taking little steps (circumspection), or simply stand still (take responsibility), it can run away from you . . .”
On the same day Mapeza watched his charges wilt in the heat of Atlantic ocean island, Ancelloti, recently a coach of Chelsea, gave a wonderful lesson to football administrators and coaches alike.
It took just three days for the Italian Football Federation to take a leaf from that by calling in their Azzuri coach Cesare Prandelli to thank him for a wonderful job he is doing with the team.
Italy qualified for Euro 2012 with flawless football under the unheralded mentor, who was fittingly feted in public and in the media.
But Zifa boss has rewarded Mapeza, with a stay of execution, for failing to qualify for the African Cup of Nations.
Mapeza, like all else before him bar Chidzambwa and Mhlauri, has failed to take the team to the African Cup of Nations.
Are we as a nation without ambition that we applaud a coach for failing, the supporters even threw a party for him?
Have we deteriorated to such depths, we can applaud at losing -not to Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire or Senegal – but to lowly ranked Cape Verde whose entire population is less than that of Harare?
Not even the hugely popular Reinhard Fabisch (May his soul rest in eternal peace), with commendable technical astuteness and impeccable demeanor was spared the inevitable guillotine for failing to qualify for the Afcon ‘94 in Tunisia or World Cup USA ‘94.
The then Zifa boss Leo Mugabe did not tell the nation that his job was safe because he realised he had failed the nation in the ultimate.
Mapeza, by all accounts, was a Dube appointment after the committee set to find a coach deemed him ill qualified for the job and settled for a controversial Belgian Tom Saintfeit, whose two-day employment and the subsequent farce, has conveniently been an alibi for the failure to qualify for the Afcon.
This newspaper will not bore you with details such as that Mapeza has been on the bench since Match Day One in Monrovia against Liberia.
Accepting the job under such circumstances when the entire body, bar Dube, did not believe he was good enough to handle Zimbabwe’s affairs for next January tournament, was akin to accepting a job to clean up a bomb blast with a dust pan and a wire brush.
When there is too much moaning and groaning, you need someone to take charge, and make a right call.
Dube did and Mapeza obliged fully cognisant of his ill- equipment for the task, in itself a recipe for disaster.
Both underestimated the institutional memory inherent in the game in which support is of essence.
Dube failed to realise that for a task as huge as qualifying the team and, under the circumstances he had created, he needed a coach who brings success and not one who hopes for it, as any slip would be victory to those who never wanted Mapeza in the seat in the first place.
Mapeza too, lost it by accepting a poisoned chalice at dawn.
He always had everything against him.
If in a job as public as coaching you get invited alone for a chat that results in vague contract, know right away that you are being set up to fail.
It is like supping with the devil – you need very long spoons.
He also forgot that the passage of time has a sure tendency of changing a lot of things.
When he took the job, the Asiagate investigations were just an idea, but when his charges lost in Cape Verde, some of his players, and including him, had been named in the report, which was made public.
Crucially the board now has three members missing, suspended on account of Asiagate.
He would never have imagined that and therefore it is very important never to run when faced with a bear, nor climb a tree, not even dipping into water.
Decision making and wisdom is therefore of paramount importance.
Football administrators are not experts in the game, rather they come through an election – theirs is borrowed tenure, but football’s is not.
They do not have a forensic knowledge of the game and most of their decisions are by intuition and emotions. Mapeza, himself a great gentleman of the game, accepted to be used and therefore should be prepared to take the abuse, circumspection and interrogations.
On that Mapeza should face his bear as a coach and not go political to offer hollow apologies that do not give Zimbabwe a ticket to the Africa soccer jamboree next January.
Since the bomb blast in Praia that destroyed Zimbabwe’s hopes, he has not explained what happened; rather he has courted silent annoyance from football purists.
Is it a shock that no public support has been granted from Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association nor from Nelson Matongorere, the technical director whose salary is paid for by Fifa to ensure quality control in that regard?
Mapeza would do himself a world of good by refusing to be put on the spot in boardroom fights.
He should accept he made some wrong calls and take full responsibility for the fruitless campaign and be bold enough to tell the nation that under his watch the Warriors again, failed to qualify for the Nations Cup and give a full report that will be important for the post mortem in readiness for the next campaign.
The 2013 Afcon will be in South Africa and the World Cup 2014 in Brazil, a simple calculation will show that the qualifiers will be trickier than previous one and we do not need this song coming from Dube in which Mapeza has provided a sound track.
Football administrators come and go and by the time teams go to Brazil in June 2014, Dube might certainly not be in the office, but the Warriors have to go to the World Cup.
For now the draw for the Afcon 2012 in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon is in Malabo on October 29 and Mali, not Zimbabwe, will be in bowls from our group, never mind we beat the Seydou Keita-less side at Rufaro
in June before choking in the heat of Cape Verde to complete an all too familiar story.
Online Reporter