adminThe next Fifa International friendly date is 6 February.
Early this week the national football mother-body turned down an offer from Angola who wanted to play the Warriors in South Africa and had undertaken to pay all the expenses.
West African giants Nigeria and Ghana had requested for friendly matches against the Warriors as part of their finals preparations ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations which kick off in neighbouring South Africa next week and run up to 10 February but they were turned down.
The Warriors technical team led by German native Dieter Klauss-Pagels felt a feel of North African opposition will give them a rough idea of what to expect from the Pharoahs whom they meet in a crucial World Cup qualifier at the end of March.
There are indications also that the Warriors might play a friendly with Malawi, before or after 6 February in an effort to give the boys as much game time together as possible.
The Warriors had a disastrous start to the World Cup campaign, losing at home 1-0 to Guinea before holding neighbours Mozambique to a 0-0 draw in Maputo.
“As you are aware that we met with the technical team on Wednesday for some briefing, it was in that meeting that the guys felt it will not benefit the team if we played against Nigeria or Ghana but instead opted for a North African country.
“As Zifa we will make all the necessary arrangements to make sure we find opposition on that date,” said Zifa board member competitions, Benedict Moyo in an interview yesterday.
All members of the technical team except Ian Gorowa and Peter Ndlovu attended the meeting.
Gorowa asked to be excused as he is heavily involved with the Nations Cup finals while the legendary Nsukuzonke is still recuperating at home after a horrific car crash.
Moyo was however quick to point out that, the planned friendly match will depend on the availability of resources given the well documented financial problems that the national association is facing.
Moyo said following the recent establishment of provincial Under-23 teams, it was also agreed that the future Under-23 national team would be selected from the players chosen by the provincial and regional coaches.
“These Under-23s will then be gradually promoted to the senior national team. If the friendly match materialises next month, we will take some of the players from that group and mix them with some of our overseas players since the match will be on a Fifa calendar date,” said Moyo.
Meanwhile, Zifa have announced that Warriors manager Shariff Mussa will be the official spokesperson for the Warriors’ technical team.
Online Reporter