adminBothwell Mahlengwe
WHEN ZIFA disbanded the Warriors, whatever that means, I questioned the logic of overlooking some of our good players — who are relatively young — for the national team.We were told the focus was going to be on the Young Warriors, the Under-20s and Under-23s.
I wasn’t so sure if this made sense given that we have a crop of players, who might not necessarily be Under-23s — Jaure, Musona, Billiart, Songani,
Mukamba, Chigova, Amidu, Mambare, Chitiyo, Nhivi and many more — who would be left out of all this.
Neither could we afford to let the experience of older players to just pass without rubbing off on the youngsters.
We saw the use of the Under-23 team in some friendlies that the Warriors were supposed to play.
We assumed all of ZIFA’s energies were going to be expended on the Under-23s.
However, what we saw from that point onwards has been a shocker.
First it took long for the Under-23 technical set-up to be confirmed. Then we had the head coach, Callisto Pasuwa, missing some games due to unexplained reasons.
The team played most of their games, although friendlies, under assistant coach, Saul Chaminuka.
To ZIFA’s credit, we saw some new players, who are playing in Europe, coming for some of our friendlies, the Morocco one in particular.
And we thought this was the team we were going to use as the foundation for the future Warriors.
Then the All-Africa Games qualifiers came along.
The preparations were affected by a stop-go situation where the technical team were told they could not have the team in camp for the period they had anticipated because of lack of funds.
The coaches wanted the team in camp for at least a month.
Eventually the team was in camp for barely five days.
As if ZIFA didn’t know that the All-Africa Games qualifiers were not on the FIFA calendar, they let the coaches call up foreign-based players whose chances of coming were next to zero. It is common knowledge that clubs, especially European ones, try as much as possible to hold on to African players even on fixtures that are on the FIFA calendar.
The inevitable happened and even Kudakwashe Mahachi’s Mamelodi Sundowns denied the youngster the chance to play for his country.
Unfortunately, it was within their rights.
What irked many was what then happened with the local clubs. And to make matters worse, the tirade was led by CAPS United FC, a team owned by a ZIFA board member, ZIFA Assembly member and PSL chairman, Twine Phiri.
The team, through their new coach, Mark Harrison, flatly refused to release their players in time for the Young Warriors preparations and game.
Harrison’s behaviour could be attributed to his allegiance to his job at CAPS United than to the Young Warriors’ cause.
However, the same cannot be said for his boss, Phiri.
With the hats Phiri wears in Zimbabwe football, he should have done better.
For starters, he has the privilege to know the goings-on at both ZIFA and PSL. Secondly, he is part of the leadership that decided to “disband the Warriors” and focus on the Young Warriors.
Then all the other teams exploited the “not-on-the-FIFA-calendar” fault-line. Consequently, the Young Warriors played without their first choice twin-striking pair of Thomas Chideu and Walter Musona and the result was a slender one-nil home win over African giants Cameroon.
A lead that leaves us with a lot to do in Yaoundé and is more likely to prove not enough for us to outfox Cameroon.
The big question is: Is this the right way to rebuild our national team?
Can we say we are serious about our national game?
Remember, we have two PSL people on the ZIFA board and we have 16 PSL people in the ZIFA Assembly.
With a bit of seriousness, we can come up with programmes that make sure that we achieve progress in both camps.
ZIFA and PSL should complement rather than compete.
I think rebuilding of the Warriors, whatever that means, should take preference over all other issues.
Not that PSL games are not important but the success of our national team feeds into the success and recognition of our national league.
A little bit of communication between ZIFA and PSL can ensure the situation that we ended up with in the build-up to Cameroon game could be avoided.
ZIFA had said that the issue will be on their agenda in their board meeting but as usual the meeting was cancelled under unclear circumstances because someone feared he would lose his job.
So, the job security of one ZIFA official, was used to sacrifice debate on the future of a national team.
We are not a football nation guys.
And, if you doubt that, wait for the chaos that will engulf the Young Warriors ahead of their trip to Cameroon.
Bothwell Mahlengwe is a former Premiership footballer and a banker and can be contacted, for feedback, on the email: [email protected]
Online Reporter