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Talk has been rife in soccer circles that some powerful player agents were influencing the selection of national team in their bid to promote players from their respective stables. The objective is to ensure their players get more national team caps which enhance their chances of going into the lucrative European leagues.
Sources also revealed that some of the player agents were very close to members of the technical team hence their influence in selecting who should be included in the national team. The cries over claims of unfair selection criteria have become even louder after the latest call-up of players who will meet Botswana in an international friendly match in Gaborone on Saturday.
The big surprise was the head coach, Norman Mapeza’s decision to call former Caps United hitman Simba Sithole who is struggling at his South African side Mamelodi Sundowns where he has not played any official football since June last year.
Also coming in as replacements were three Dynamos players, defenders Milton Makopa, Guthrie Zhokinyu and 2011 Golden Boot winner Rodrick Mutuma and another struggling South Africa-based player Oscar Machapa who has played just 547 minutes out of a possible 1 350 minutes for Moroka Swallows this season.
A Harare-based agent said yesterday that player agents were pushing to have their players included in the national team.
“I believe there is a serious and enormous influence from some agents in as far as the national team selection is concerned. You just have to be on talking terms with guys on the technical bench for you to call the shots,” said the agent who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation.
However, Warriors’ assistant coach Joey Antipas dismissed as unfounded allegations that the technical team was under pressure from player agents.
Antipas said it was also not true that there was a deliberate ploy to exclude players from outside Harare.
“There is no ploy at all, we just pick players we feel can do the job. For example, we wanted Eric Mudzingwa but he is not 100 percent fit,” said Antipas.
Following the non-availability of a number of foreign-based players and the fact that the team was supposed to camp in the City of Kings, it was only logical for the Mapeza regime to call up some players based in the city and the region.
Players like Hwange duo of skipper Gerald Ndlovu and Soccer Star of the Year finalist Nkosana Siwela should have been included in the national team ahead of players like Sithole who has not been playing for a long time.
Highlanders top scorer last season Graham Ncube should have been afforded the opportunity to partner Mutuma, whose call-up was long overdue.
Ever since Mapeza took over the biggest football post in the land, players from outside the capital have increasingly found it difficult to please him with former Hwange player Method Mwanjali getting the chop under as yet unclear circumstances.
Mwanjali, who wore the captain’s armband during the failed Nations Cup qualifier, last played for the Warriors in the 2-1 defeat to Cape Verde in Praia where he was blamed for the second goal. Leading scorer in the campaign, Germany-based Knowledge Musona scored the consolation goal.
Meanwhile, the Warriors will now travel a gruelling 1 100km from the capital to Gaborone for the friendly match after Zifa once again bungled in their planning.
By late yesterday afternoon, the team was still stranded in the capital with the technical staff seemingly in the dark regarding travel arrangements.
“It’s very difficult to know when we are likely to leave because things are not in order here,” said stand-in manager Wellington Mpandare, painting a gloomy picture.
Zifa communications manager Nicky Dlamini-Moyo however said the team will now leave this morning by road.
“They will leave tomorrow morning by road,” she said from the capital yesterday.
Warriors squad
Tapiwa Kapini, Washington Arubi, George Chigova, Tapiwa Kumbuyani, Gilbert Mapemba, Daniel Vheremu, Guthrie Zhokinyu, Qadr Amini, Denver Mukamba, Joel Ngodzo, Milton Makopa, Oscar Machapa, Charles Sibanda, Rodrick Mutuma, Cuthbert Malajila, Simbarashe Sithole, Lincoln Zvasiya.
Online Reporter