By Farayi Machamire
HARARE – Zifa have disbanded the entire national side after the country’s failure to progress to the next stage of the 2015 African Nations Cup qualifiers.
Appearing before Parliament, Zifa president Cuthbert Dube said the association will now build a new national team from the current Under-23 side.
Zimbabwe were booted out of the qualifiers by Tanzania at the first hurdle after losing a two-legged preliminary round in June.
“We have dissolved the senior team. We have restructured ourselves because the future lies in our juniors,” Dube told the Parliamentary Committee for Sports, Arts and Culture.
“It is not easy to lead an organisation that is failing. Next month we will come up with a strategic plan. We have already identified the coaches for the various ages from Under-13 to Under-23.”
Dube, re-elected for a second term in March, conceded that his first term in office did not yield the results he had envisaged when he took up office in 2010.
“I must be honest, our first term in office was not a success. That term was focused on the Asiagate which is still to be finalised but this is a new board.”
This is the second time under Dube’s reign that Zifa have claimed to have dissolved the Warriors.
In 2011, Zifa disbanded the entire team after failure to qualify for the 2012 Afcon qualifiers in South Africa. A lot of the players however made their way back into the team at the request of the coach.
Zifa’s latest disbandment of the national team comes barely days after Warriors coach Ian Gorowa resigned following a spate of disputes with the association’s CEO Jonathan Mashingaidze.
Gorowa claimed Zifa did not pay him in seven months.
And in a thinly-veiled attack on Gorowa, Dube branded the coach a “player agent” who failed in his mission because he was more interested in marketing players to foreign teams.
“I was the president when Gorowa was appointed coach. It is unfortunate we did not know then (that Gorowa was an agent).
“What is disturbing is that after the Tanzania game, six players were sold to South Africa and as Zifa we have not received a cent for their transfers,” Dube said.
Dube said Gorowa would try to boost caps of some players for easier facilitation of transfer of these players to South Africa.
“I was also disappointed at the Chan finals, although Gorowa did a good job to get to the semi-finals, but there was one player who was continuously selected despite not playing well,” Dube said.
At least six players from the core of Gorowa’s team have since inked deals in South Africa. Daily News
