adminAn emergency committee of the board has been tasked with meeting today to table the events that led to the Warriors’ nightmarish trip to Conakry for a Group G encounter against the Sylie National, which coach Klaus Dieter Pagels’ men lost 1-0.
Zifa attracted the anger of the nation following the manner in which the Warriors, who eventually sent 14 players to battle in Guinea, travelled for the West African country with five officials including assistant coaches Lloyd Mutasa and Peter Ndlovu being stuck in Dakar Senegal after failing to connect to Conakry.
It is after the emergency committee indaba that Zifa president Cuthbert Dube is expected to issue a comprehensive statement on what really led to the Guinea debacle and the steps that the board have taken to put their house in order ahead of the Warriors trips to Zambia for the Cosafa Cup and the African Nations Championships assignment away to Mauritius.
Dube had been away in Brazil for the Fifa Confederations Cup when the Guinea debacle erupted and the Zifa president only returned to the country on Wednesday.
Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, said yesterday that although he had “thoroughly briefed the president’’ on the circumstances surrounding the Warriors’ chaos, the matter would also be discussed when the emergency committee meets.
The emergency committee convenes in between scheduled board meetings to deal with urgent matters that would have arisen and Dube will chair the indaba that is also expected to be attended by members — Nigel Munyati, Elliot Kasu, Benedict Moyo and John Phiri.
Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede could have also attended the indaba but he is reportedly away in Botswana.
There is a strong belief in the domestic football family however, that the chaos that characterised the Warriors trip to Guinea could not have sunk to such embarrassing depths had Dube, who has often bailed out Zifa, been in the country.
Mashingaidze said the emergency committee would also discuss the issue of Pagels’ contract ahead of the coach’s expected return from Germany in time for the start of the Warriors training camp for the Cosafa Cup.
“We are looking at the Guinea trip and trying to ensure that such hiccups that we faced with the assignment to Conakry is not repeated for the Cosafa and CHAN qualifiers.
“A detailed report will come from Benedict Moyo in his capacity as the head of delegation for the trip and also as the chairman of the high-performance committee.
“In fact, the high performance committee has prepared a technical report of the entire World Cup campaign to date.
“Under the item of the national teams, the contractual status of the national coach will also be discussed and a framework for the way forward would mapped at this meeting but we are also expecting Pagels to submit his own report when returns from Germany.
“The full board will then meet in July and discuss what the emergency committee would have come up with ,’’ Mashingaidze said.
Although Zifa and Pagels are still to ink a new deal, Mashingaidze said while his board was very keen on retaining the German, they were also closely assessing their capacity to meet the coach’s perks given that the association would need sponsors to help them cover the gaffer’s demands.
“It is an open secret that as Zifa we do not have the financial resources to meet some of our major obligations but the Trust has really been helping us in mobilising resources.
“The Trust also met yesterday (Thursday) and they are now mobilising resources for the Cosafa and CHAN and we want to salute them for the hard work they are doing and have been done after just four months in office’’.
The Warriors will face Malawi in a Cosafa Cup quarter-final tie in Zambia on July 10 and should Pagels’ men — a squad of homegrown talent —reach the final, they would not break camp as there would be only a few days before they fly out to Mauritius for the CHAN tourney.
Zimbabwe are away to Mauritius on the weekend of July 27-28 for the CHAN first round,, first leg encounter before they host the Indian Ocean islanders on the weekend of August 3-4 in the reverse tie.
Zifa and the Premier Soccer League, Mashingaidze also said, had struck an understanding where the Warriors technical department would have to widen their selection base for the Cosafa squad and ensure they do not pick “more than two players from each club and disrupt the league programme’’. The PSL fixtures have just resumed after a two-week international break to pave the way for the back to back World Cup qualifiers across the continent.
Online Reporter