Warriors camp called off

week after Zifa experienced some logistical problems.
Yesterday, the national regional tournament, which was scheduled to be held at Rufaro by the Warriors technical department to select some Under-23 players from lower divisions, was postponed after the local soccer mother body failed to secure transport for the teams travelling to the capital.

This development means the senior national team’s head coach Klaus Dieter Pagels will have to wait a little longer before he announces his squad as he had wanted to blend the local Premiership players with rookie players from the lower divisions.

Pagels had earlier indicated that the local Premiership players would report for camp today and would start working with them together with the players he would have selected from the regional tournament before the foreign contingent joins in next Sunday.

The German coach has already selected and forwarded to Zifa 12 Premiership players he wants in camp for the match against the Zebras with the remaining slots being reserved for the foreign-based and any of the trialists who may have impressed the technical bench.

Pagels yesterday said that he would now wait for the programme from Zifa after his plans were disrupted by the failure to host the regional tournament.

He, however, referred all the other questions on the team to the Zifa board member (competitions) Benedict “Grinder” Moyo.

Moyo said they failed to host the regional tournament yesterday as they experienced some problems with a sponsor who had promised to provide transport for the players.

“We had logistical problems with transport for the players from Victoria Falls, Mutare, Masvingo and so forth.

“Our sponsor, who was responsible for that, had some challenges. As you know, Zifa doesn’t have money and have to rely on some well-wishers.

“We also couldn’t have trials with Under-20 players from Harare so we will now have the tournament when everything has been sorted out.

“The situation was also compounded by the fact that our chief executive is in hospital and he is the one who was handling that portfolio.

“But the position at the moment is that the technical team has agreed to have the trials this Thursday and the team will go into camp maybe on Friday and we will take it from there” said Moyo.

Pagels, who is yet to have the feel of his new job following his appointment as the Warriors head coach last year, is taking the friendly match seriously as he prepares for the upcoming World Cup qualifier against Egypt on March 26 in Cairo.

He has requested to Zifa to have all the foreign-based players who are in his plans to come for the Zebras tie.

And it appears the coach is sticking to his word that his squad will not mainly be made up of foreign-based players as what used to be the norm in the past as he has called about 12 local Premiership players into the squad which would be announced later this week.

The coach has also organised that at the end of February the locally-based Warriors will go into camp as they would be used as a demonstration group by the Premiership coaches when they undergo a high level refresher course to be conducted by the German instructor.