Zifa speaks on HPC mandate

Fungai Muderere . .
ZIFA vice-president Omega Sibanda says the High Performance Committee (HPC) cannot hire or fire any national team coach but recommend potential candidates to be employed.

Members of the much talked about committee include former Warriors midfielder Moses Chunga, vice-chairman Sunday Chidzambwa, Rahman Gumbo, Innocent Chogugudza, Masimba Chihohwa and Taurai Mangwiro, who is the Zifa technical director.

Sibanda chairs the committee.

a�?The committee can only recommend to Zifa through the president (Philip Chiyangwa) what needs to be done with regards to our national teams. As opposed to the popular belief that the committee can hire and fire coaches, they only recommend which coaches can be hired for a particular national team. The Zifa executive then decides on whom to hire but not all of the committeea��s recommendations are taken by the associationsa�� executive,a�? said Sibanda.

a�?Our activities for the year 2016 concluded with Afcon after our national teams participated in the Chan tournament, Cosafa mena��s championships, Cosafa Youth Games and Rio Olympics for the Mighty Warriors among other assignments. In that regard, the high performance committee is mandated to review how we prepared for the tournaments. They also review how the coaches and the players performed,a�? he added.

The Zifa executive committee has since firedA� Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa following recommendations made by the high performance committee.

The HPC met to deliberate on the Warriorsa�� performance at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, where they were knocked out of the Group stages after finishing bottom of their pool.

Pasuwa first presented his report and was interviewed on technical issues and the way the team played as well as being asked to explain the teama��s shortcomings at the tournament.

The committee then met to make recommendations, which were reportedly considered by the executive committee.

Some of the technical committee members had already been on record suggesting that the technical team be beefed up with a foreign coach, who may come in the form of a technical advisor.

The Warriors finished bottom of Group B with just one point, which they picked from their draw with Algeria.

They lost the other two matches against Senegal 2-0 and Tunisia 4-2.