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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
THE Warriors are looking to return to international football with friendly matches against neighbours Zambia and Mozambique during the upcoming FIFA international break.
The most immediate date will run from September 4 to 12 with the next set for October 9 to 17 when the second leg of the qualifiers for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) are set to take place.
The dates could be key for Zimbabwe who are set to feature in the World Cup qualifiers in November after almost two years of inactivity.
ZIFA Normalisation Committee chairman Lincoln Mutasa said they have agreed with a number of countries, and are working on the finer details.
However, it is highly unlikely that the foreign-based players will be part of the team that will play the first game as Zimbabwe return to international football following the lifting of the FIFA suspension last month.
However, Mutasa said the incoming coach will make the final call with regards to calling the foreign-based players or using the local players.
“We have agreed with Mozambique and Zambia to have a match with them. So we are looking at playing two matches during that time,” said Mutasa.
The ZIFA boss says they are looking at using the two friendlies to prepare for the CHAN that is scheduled to start on September 22 to 24 the first leg and the second leg October 6 to 8.
The draw for the CHAN is yet to be done.
“The coach will make a decision on which players to use. But with that decision with the CHAN tournament around the corner, we might use the local players and then use the October window to field the foreign players.
“But what is occupying our minds is to look for the coaches,” he said.
He said they have set up an interim technical committee that will shortlist and interview candidates.
“We haven’t put in a technical committee yet. So these people will assist with the process and we will give them timelines but we are sorting out the data for now,” he said.
Mutasa said by the time they feature in the matches, they would have appointed a head coach and his assistants. ZIFA have since advertised the posts for all national teams.
“We are assembling a team of people who will select the coaches since we are working with over 200 applicants. The process has not started. We are basically printing the CVs.”
The Normalisation Committee chairman said they have received an “overwhelming response” from people seeking national team posts including the hot seat, the Warriors coaching job.
“We have over 200 applicants for the posts. The figure can even go higher because some have applied for both the Warriors and Mighty Warriors posts while some have applied for other junior teams’ posts as well.
“So it is a lot of data we are going through.
“We have a mixture of local coaches and former international players who have applied. Some of them have played here and some of them outside the country. Not all of them are going for the Warriors post, some are going for the Under-17, Under-20 and women’s teams.
“Quite a number of former players have expressed interest in different posts. We also have quite a number of those who applied after the cut-off date had ended.
“It will not be fair for me to pre-empt any names. We are trying to be objective and all the people who have applied have confidence in us,” he said.
Crucially for them, the Normalisation Committee is not looking at tying someone for a long contract opting to have the next executive bring in their own coach.
“We are a Normalisation Committee and we don’t want to tie down the association by having a coach beyond a one-year commitment. It will only be fair for the executive committee to tie down the coach they want to a lengthy contract,” said Mutasa.
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