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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
YOUNG Warriors’ coach Callisto Pasuwa will be forced to relinquish one of his national teams’ jobs if the Zifa high performance committee picks him as the senior national team coach as is highly expected today. This comes after an apparent violation of the beleaguered Zifa’s own constitution by a four-member Zifa emergency committee led by the association’s president Cuthbert Dube that has already appointed Pasuwa as the substantive Warriors’ coach.
According to Article 34, sub-section K of the Zifa constitution; the executive committee (board) shall appoint the coaches for the representative teams and other technical staff.
The emergency committee is made up of board members John Phiri, Twine Phiri (Premier Soccer League president), Fungai Chihuri and Dube.
“Pasuwa was confirmed on Friday last week. This meeting of the high performance committee is just a smokescreen meant to legitimise an illegality,” said a Zifa source.
Pasuwa is assisted by Saul Chaminuka and Nation Dube in the training of Young Warriors.
The Zifa high performance committee, led by board member Phiri, meets in the capital today to finalise on the senior national team coach’s appointment.
A quick check with the Under-23s and Warriors’ fixtures for the Caf Championships and the 2017 African Nations Cup qualifiers reveals that the two national representative sides’ games clash along the way, beginning with the Under-23s’ Caf Championships qualifier against Swaziland over the weekend of May 22-24.
The Young Warriors, who recently qualified for the African Games set for Congo Brazzaville in September, will be home to Swaziland before visiting the kingdom a week later.
During that time, the Cosafa Cup will be on in South Africa (May 17-30). The Warriors, who begin their 2017 Afcon qualifiers away to Malawi in June, will play host to Guinea on September 5, a day after the African Games would have begun in Congo Brazzaville.
“Probably those pushing for the appointment of Pasuwa to the senior team had not taken that into account but we’ll now have to look at that because certainly I don’t think as Zimbabwe, we have a coaches crisis. He (Pasuwa) might have to decide which post he wants if he is appointed to the senior team,” said a member of the high performance committee who also took a swipe at the Zifa board for only thinking about them when there is a crisis.
The high performance committee last met in February 2014.
The history-making former Dynamos gaffer, has been given the green light to choose a provisional Cosafa squad, giving a strong indication that Zifa wants him to lead Zimbabwe in their Afcon campaign. It, however, further vindicates the high performance committee’s claims that Zifa does not consult them on major technical decisions on national teams.
Some names that have been touted for the senior national team’s dressing room besides Pasuwa include Madinda Ndlovu, who recently resigned from his post as head coach of Botswana’s Township Rollers, Triangle United’s Kelvin Kaindu as well as Moses “Razorman” Chunga.
Under-23 and senior national team fixtures:
Under-23 route to Senegal (Caf Under-23 Championships, December 5-19)
May 22-24: Zimbabwe v Swaziland
May 29-31: Swaziland v Zimbabwe
Winner proceeds to play South Africa in the last and final stage
First leg: July 17-19
Second leg: July 31-August 2
September 4-19: African Games in Congo Brazzaville, the Young Warriors have already qualified
August 3-20, 2016: Olympic Games
Senior national team:
May 17- 30: Cosafa Cup
Afcon qualifiers:
13 June: Malawi v Zimbabwe
September 5: Zimbabwe v Guinea
March 25, 2016 : Swaziland v Zimbabwe
March 28, 2016 : Zimbabwe v Swaziland
June 4, 2016 : Zimbabwe v Malawi
September 3, 2016 : Guinea v Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter