Zifa begin hunt for Warriors coach

Grace Chingoma, Harare Bureau

ZIFA are this week starting the hunt for the next Warriors coach when they advertise posts for the coaches to lead the country’s national football teams that are back on the international stage following the recent lifting of the Fifa suspension.

The ZifaA Normalisation Committee, which was installed by Fifa last month, is setting up the structures and the committee’s chairman Lincoln Mutasa revealed yesterday that they have officially begun the hunt for national teams’ coaches.

Mutasa said they were expecting to flight adverts for the posts of the Mighty Warriors as well as the Warriors and national age-group team coaches in the next two days.

“We will have the adverts maybe tomorrow (today) or the following day. We are advertising for all the national team posts from the Under-17, Under-20, Under-23 up to the senior teams,” he said.

The appointment of the Warriors coach in particular has been the hot topic among the local football enthusiasts following the FIFA World Cup draw, whose qualifying matches begin in November. But the most immediate task is the African

Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifiers scheduled to start next month which would mark the Warriors’ first international assignment after nearly two years on the sidelines.

The Normalisation Committee have given assurances that the Warriors coach will be unveiled before the start of the qualifiers. FC Platinum gaffer Norman Mapeza was the last coach to take charge of the national team, when he guided the Warriors to a first-round exit at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon in January 2022.

A month after the tournament, Zimbabwe were suspended by Fifa.

According to the Confederation of African Football (Caf), the qualifiers for the 2024 CHAN edition will commence in September.

The CHAN is a tournament reserved only for players plying their trade in their national leagues. After the start of the CHAN qualifiers, the Warriors foreign legion are expected to jet in for the World Cup assignments, which are set for November.

For the World Cup qualifiers, the Warriors were drawn in Group C — which also includes West African giants Nigeria, neighbours and rivals South Africa, Benin, Rwanda and Lesotho. Before those qualifiers, FIFA have set aside two international weeks in September and October.

The new Warriors coach will need time to scout for players ahead of a tight schedule.

Also, as part of Zimbabwe’s reintegration process, Zifa had hoped to field the Mighty Warriors in the upcoming Cosafa Women’s Championship set for next month in South Africa but their request was turned down by the organisers.

The Mighty Warriors will have to wait a little bit longer before they can assemble for international football after they were left out of the programme as the organisers had already finalised logistics for the tournament.

The team is also expected to resume international competitions under new brooms amid revelations that Zifa are set to advertise for the post of Mighty Warriors coach.

Platinum Royals coach Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda was the last head coach when the team featured in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in February last year, just before Zimbabwe were suspended from international football by Fifa.