THE Warriors fans are not happy and they feel they are being taken for a ride by those tasked with managing the country’s national game. Yesterday, we reported that the ZIFA Normalisation Com-mittee, whose operations have been anything but normal in the 11 months they have been in charge of our football, have come under fire for not taking the Warriors’ 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification seriously.
This follows their decision to invite applications for the Warriors coach’s job, a month before the World Cup qualifi-ers resume. It just doesn’t make sense that an association can start looking for a coach with just month before the qualifiers resume. The Nigerians, who are part of our group, have already made their decision on who will be in charge of their World Cup qualifiers by appointing the legendary Finidi George as the Super Eagles coach. But ZIFA somehow feel that this is the time for them to invite applications for the job of national coach. So, the coaches have started applying and ZIFA will go through all the applications and vet them and then decide who is best suited to lead the Warriors.
That’s a process and, if it is done very well, it’s something that we don’t expect to be completed within a week or so. This means that the coach, who ZIFA will settle for, will just have a few weeks to adjust to the reality that he is now the man InCharge of the Warriors. Then, he will start to look at the portfolio of players that we have and then make the decision on who will be called for national duty and who will not be invited.“Any coach that you will appoint in less than a week or two before June matches will have excuses for failing to qualify.“You had Brito, who had established a clear path for success and rapport with players. “Then you confused things with the belated engagement of Mapeza for that tourney,’ said one fan.
This is not the best way to manage such a situation and the fans who are saying ZIFA have betrayed them have a valid point because what the association is doing fits the definition of Mickey Mouse stuff. In the 11 months that Lincoln Mutasa and his team have been in charge of ZIFA, we have seen a lot of blunders but whenever thought things will get this worse to a point where we won’t be having the national team coach with a month to go before the World Cup qualifiers resume.
This should have been the easiest task for any ZIFA leadership given that virtually everything is bankrolled by FIFA. This should have made it easier for Mutasa and his team to have come up with a national team coach a long time ago. But, then, these are the foot-ball leaders who appear to be obsessed with making major blunders, including those grand mistakes which will affect our national teams.
