Pasuwa to quit Warriors?

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
WARRIORS coach Callisto Pasuwa is fed up with ZIFA, after being paid only $100 for his services to the national teams cause, and could quit anytime now, plunging the national team’s 2017 Nations Cup campaign into chaos.

The former Dynamos coach feels he is being ill-treated by his employers, who seem to be taking advantage of his love for his nation, and that fact that — unlike other coaches — he does not believe in using the media to complain when he is getting a raw deal.

He has been doubling as both the Warriors and Young Warriors coach and, although he received a letter of appointment as the head coach of the senior national team, the contract is yet to be thrashed out.

And, to add insult to injury, the ZIFA officials, who are supposed to be engaging him to discuss his welfare, have been avoiding him and the coach believes that his patience is now running out and he could walk away.

Pasuwa, who is still using his personal car and fuel for national duty, has been chewing into the savings that he made when he was working for Dynamos and, six months after he left the Glamour Boys, those funds are running dry.

His aides told The Herald that Pasuwa, who doesn’t believe in discussing his problems in the media, was not even focused on the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Malawi next weekend because of his personal crisis.

Zimbabwe are yet to name the squad or announce the camping dates for the senior team while Malawi are in Egypt for an international friendly match ahead of the opening AFCON qualifier on June 13 in Blantyre.

The Flames did not break camp when they returned from the COSAFA Cup in South Africa last week.

“Mana (Pasuwa) has not been paid from the days the Young Warriors played Cameroon. He didn’t even got a bonus for qualifying with the team for the All-Africa Games,” said the sources.

“He drives his own car while working for the nation, ZIFA don’t even service it and, at times, he is forced to go and pick up players from outside Harare when they arrive in the capital for camping using his own fuel.

“He feels it’s better to leave and is contemplating to quit because he is using his personal resources to do the job. He has reached a point where he feels enough is enough.

“He has only received $100, all this time, and from the $54 000 which came from Prophet Magaya, he didn’t get even a single cent.

“He understands ZIFA are not financially sound but the conditions he is being subjected to work under are getting worse by the day and are not conducive for him to be successful.

“Only last week he had to be rescued by Shariff Mussa (the Warriors’ team manager) with $20 money for fuel to run around before leaving for Swaziland.

“And, as if that was not enough, they were exposed further and faced many financial challenges during that trip such that he returned home disoriented.

“The savings he made at DeMbare are now fast being used up by national team commitments.”

The sources added that what irked the coach the most was that ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze and president Cuthbert Dube appeared to be avoiding him and don’t respond to Pasuwa whenever he asks for his contract for the Warriors job.

“He doesn’t have a contract. It is just an appointment letter without a salary or figures. He cannot get Mashingaidze to sign the contract and has written numerous emails on the subject,” said the sources.

“He can’t get the audience from Mash or ZIFA president.

“So, he has taken a back seat and he is not really doing anything about the Malawi squad as yet till ZIFA engage him on the contract and show how serious they are.

“It is not easy when you are a family man and a father to toil for nothing as at the end of the day your wife expects you to bring food on the table and take care of the bills for kids such as school fees which have to be paid.”

Efforts to get a comment from ZIFA over the matter were fruitless yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Warriors moved up four places on the FIFA rankings which were released yesterday and are now on position 119 from 124.