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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
CASTLE Lager Premier Soccer League clubs have been urged not to panic over a “reckless and ill-advised announcement” by Zifa technical director Takaendesa Jongwe that only Caf A coaching badge holders will be allowed to sit on the bench from next season.Some Zifa board members even questioned the failed former Premiership coach’s credentials and reminded him that he was not in any event a substantive Zifa technical director as the board was yet to confirm him.
Zifa board member and former national team player John Phiri said he does not remember the day that the board approved or resolved to have the Caf A badge as the minimum qualification for PSL coaches.
“It’s true that the trend has to be followed but it’s not yet official here, we will make proper announcements when the right time comes. Probably Jongwe is taking it from the Caf requirements but for now that’s not the case. We cannot unilaterally make such a proclamation, it has to be a process,” said Phiri.
Phiri also hinted that they might be no reason for coaches holding more advanced qualifications to be required to have a Caf A badge, saying such holders can do so out of their own volition.
Some courses run for almost a year while the Caf A course takes just 30 days or less.
Another board member said Jongwe must not speak on behalf of the board on such serious issues.
“We cannot have pretenders causing alarm and despondency in our football structures, who is he to make such decrees? Our clubs should enjoy their Christmas holidays and not panic over those utterances. Caf A just started recently in this country and you can’t honestly expect every coach to be having it by now,” said the board member.
He warned that they might soon be forced to investigate Jongwe’s Caf C badge after allegations that he did not attend it but instead jumped to Caf B.
An angry club official said they will never employ any coach who was supervised by Jongwe.
“He struggled as a coach and was at one time fired at Buymore, a team owned by the Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and he now wants to dictate to us on how we should run our clubs. For starters as a club we will not employ anyone who has a Caf A licence under Jongwe’s supervision,” said the official.
Jongwe recently stunned the nation when he said Zimbabwe football was 20 years behind.
Twenty years ago the Warriors came closest to qualifying for the World Cup finals during the Dream Team era and the side was a feared force that had felled the likes of Guinea, Egypt and Cameroon.
Chicken Inn have already rubbished the directive and said some coaches are only good in theory but when it came to practical work, they found life very difficult.
“As far as we are concerned, our coach is qualified to coach anywhere in the world, we can’t lose sleep over these academic decisions,” said Chicken Inn secretary-general Tawengwa Hara.
Joey Antipas heads the Chicken Inn technical bench and is believed to hold Dutch coaching qualifications while How Mine’s Luke Masomere has a Caf B badge. They are however, both championship winning coaches with Motor Action and AmaZulu respectively.
Questions have come up on how Jongwe landed the job as at the time he was appointed he did not hold qualifications and had just been demoted from the Mighty Warriors where then Rose Mugadza was better qualified.
At the time board members had opposed the decision to hire him.
Bongani Moyo
Online Reporter