Zifa appointments clarified

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIFA vice-president Omega Sibanda may have distanced himself from the appointment of junior national team coaches, but it has emerged that he is bound by a board resolution which decided to restructure all the Young Warriors’ sides and disband the senior side. Sibanda sensationally claimed on Monday that he was not aware of any board resolution to appoint national coaches for all junior teams.

The Zifa vice-president told The Chronicle that he had only read about the appointments in newspapers and also disowned a report of the association’s High Performance committee which had recommended the dismissal of former Warriors coach Ian Gorowa and suggested names to be considered for the junior sides from Under-13 to Under-15.

Gorowa resigned a day before the Zifa board meeting on August 6, which was to discuss his fate.
While claiming that he had only read about the coaches’ appointments in the papers, Sibanda also contended that the HPC had only been specifically appointed to monitor Gorowa’s work.

“I don’t know anything about that (the appointments’), I only saw it in the papers like everybody else. I don’t remember being part of the board that approved those appointments, maybe my president Cuthbert Dube knows better,” Sibanda said.

The Zifa Number Two man also challenged the notion that the HPC, which is chaired by board member and Warriors legend John Phiri, did not have the mandate to make any recommendations about the coaches.

But it has emerged that Sibanda attended the initial Zifa board meeting where Phiri handed copies of the High Performance Committee’s report to all members which carried a raft of recommendations.

“It was then that the board resolved to take time to go through the HPC’s report and then reconvene to discuss the recommendations as well as make a decision on the future of national coach Ian Gorowa and all the junior men’s and women’s national teams,’’ Zifa sources said yesterday.

After initially meeting on the eve of a Zifa assembly meeting and strategic planning retreat, the board also met again on August 6, on the eve of their appearance before a parliamentary portfolio committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

A notice of that August 6 indaba shows on its agenda that that there were three main items for discussion which were:
Parliamentary portfolio committee meting
Appointment of technical structures for all national teams (Under-13,17,20, 23 and Senior national teams)
2014-2018 Strategic Planning benchmarks,’’ read part of the notice.

Sibanda, however, did not attend the August 6 meeting but that the five board members in attendance ensured there was a quorum and thus the Zifa vice-president was bound by the resolutions of the meeting which were made by Twine Phiri, John Phiri, Fungai Chihuri, Bernard Gwarada, and chaired buy the association’s boss Dube.

Zifa sources yesterday also indicated that the board had adopted with some amendments the recommendations that had been made by the High Performance committee when making the appointments which also included the input of NAPH and NASH.

“After the board had met and resolved to make the appointments of the technical structures all the board members were then notified of the developments and the targeted coaches and their respective employers were also advised and they confirmed their acceptances.

“There was no appointment of the senior men’s coach because there was an agreement in the Zifa board that immediate attention should be on the Under-23 men’s Olympic team and the rest of the youth teams from Under-13 level.

“At the moment Zifa is also broke and cannot hire a new national coach more so with no major assignments to take charge of and the board thinks that this is the chance to build using the Under-23 players,’’ the sources said.

It also emerged that the HPTC recommended that Zifa should appoint coaches who will help in identifying players across the country as well as ensure that that NAPH and NASH provide the assistant coaches for the Under-13 and Under-15 Boys and Girls teams.

The Zifa board is, however, still to take a position on the High Performance committee’s recommendation that they considered identifying and appointing regional coaches too.

“There is need for the national selectors to cast the selection net wider and select the best players and not based on regionalism as is the case with most teams especially the juniors which are dominated by Harare and Bulawayo. We need to have regional coaches to make it easier for planning purposes,’’ wrote the HPC.