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Tadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
ZIFA have agreed, in principle, for the Warriors to play the Harambee Stars of Kenya, in an international friendly, as part of preparations for the CHAN finals next year.
The CHAN tournament, reserved for players plying their trade in their domestic leagues, will be staged in Cameroon from January 16 to February 7.
It was originally scheduled for April 4-25 this year but was postponed following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The local Premiership has been on halt, since March, and this means Warriors coach, Zdravko Logarusic, finds himself in a difficult position to choose the right men for the job.
The domestic top-flight league sides have since started group training, with a mini-tournament, expected next month.
ZIFA have been engaging their counterparts, across the continent, to find a team ready for some friendly matches to help the preparations for the CHAN finals.
Felton Kamambo, the ZIFA president, said the association’s engagements with the Kenya Football Federation were at an advanced stage and the two countries could battle, late next month or early in January.
“It’s a fact that the year 2020 has not been one of the best, in as far as our football is concerned,” said Kamambo.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the game in every respect. Consequently, there has not been any action in the domestic football arena.
“Players have been training at home alone, without group training whatsoever. Remember, before the lockdown was proclaimed by the authorities, our team was in camp ahead of the CHAN tournament that was supposed to run in April.
“We had to abruptly call off camp, and rush the players back to their respective stations.
“Since then, the players have been training at home alone, with the help of their respective club coaches.
“It’s only recently that they have started training in groups, with the view of playing a mini-tournament coming up this December.’’
Kamambo said they realised they will also need to give the Warriors some game time ahead of their departure for Cameroon.
“But, in terms of CHAN preparations, we are running around, as an association, to get some associations to engage in friendlies,’’ he said.
“As of now, we have been in touch with Kenya and we are most likely to play them before we head to Cameroon.
“We have agreed, in principle, to play Kenya in a friendly. We are also continuing to engage other associations to book friendly matches so that we give our coach a perfect opportunity to prepare his CHAN squad.”
The CHAN squad, Kamambo revealed, will be going into camp early next month to give Loga a bit of time with the players.
He said the team could go into camp starting mid-December and they will break for Christmas and New Year’s Holidays.
“We are aiming to have an early camp for the team going to the CHAN tournament. Very soon the coach will be announcing the provisional squad to do duty in Cameroon next year.
“The team is expected to go into an early camp, to give the coach time to prepare and assess his arsenal. The team will only break for the festive holidays.
“We are determined to provide the coach with enough support for him to perform his duties in an efficient manner.”
Only players, who would have been picked from the country’s CAF Champions League representatives FC Platinum, will not immediately go into camp with the rest of the squad.
They will be involved in the continental competition, if they manage to get past the preliminary stages, which gets underway on November 27. Zimbabwe will get the tournament underway against hosts, Cameroon on January 16 at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé. The Group also features Mali and Burkina Faso.
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