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Grace Chingoma
THE short-list for the vacant Warriors post might not have been made public, but two of the country’s most successful coaches are not part of the cast that seeking to take charge of the senior national soccer team.
Trailblazing coaches Callisto Pasuwa and Norman Mapeza are not among those that have out their names up for consideration for the Warriors job that was advertised by the ZIFA Normalisation Committee.
Pasuwa won four successive Castle Lager Premiership titles with Dynamos before taking charge of the Warriors and guiding them to qualification for the 2016 Africa Nations Championships (CHAN) and the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon the following year.
The former Zimbabwe and DeMbare midfielder is now coach of Malawi Super League giants Nyasa Big Bullets.
Mapeza has since taken over the mantle of dominance and has ruled the local roost, leading his FC Platinum to three of their four straight Premiership title.
Former Zimbabwe skipper Mapeza, who played UEFA Champions League football in Turkey also took charge of the Warriors at their last AFCON appearance in Cameroon last year.
According to Pasuwa and Mapeza’s manager, Gibson Mahachi, the pair is not interested in an immediate return to the Warriors set up and has not applied.
Mahachi said yesterday that his clients are still not happy that ZIFA do not honour their financial commitment when it comes to local coaches yet ironically go out of their way to meet financial obligations for expatriates.
The two coaches are still owed substantial amounts by ZIFA.
Mahachi said Mapeza is owed US$245 000 from his previous stints with the association while ZIFA are to still to settle the US$103 000 they owe him.
Despite getting a windfall from FIFA to use to pay creditors and clear legacy debts, the ousted Felton Kamambo board had wanted to settle the debts in local currency, a move that Pasuwa and Mapeza flatly rejected.
Mahachi backed his coaches for their principled stand.
“I feel local coaches are being used and it is not fair. It is not necessary to apply. There is no keen interest from our side and our coaches.
“They are owed money, actually they lost because it seems they are not going to get the money,” said Mahachi.
He bemoaned the fact that local coaches continue to receive a raw deal from ZIFA when they are the ones who have delivered.
“On all the occasions that the Warriors played at the AFCON, it was a local coach at the helm.
“Yet foreign coaches have walked away with large sums of money even when some of them never worked.
“When the association is in dire need of help they turn to these local coaches. But at the end of the day they don’t appreciate them,” Mahachi said.
Although Pasuwa and Mapeza have snubbed the call to apply, the have been overwhelming responses to the call by the Normalisation Committee for prospective candidates for the various national teams amid indications that about 200 coaches sent in their CVs for the jobs.
The Normalisation Committee want to appoint coaches for the national teams ranging from the Under-17 to the Under-23 men and women’s sides and the Warriors and Mighty Warriors.
Online Reporter