Zifa investigating legitimacy of Warriors coach Loga’s Uefa Pro Licence

By Sikhumbuzo Moyo

Zifa is reportedly investigating the legitimacy of Warriors coach Zdravko Logarusic’s Uefa Pro Licence coaching badge amid allegations that it may have been fraudulently acquired.

Loga said on Tuesday he acquired his Pro Licence in 2013 “after many impressive perfomances and grades in lower level courses”.

He then forwarded a copy of his licence, which was signed by three officials, including recently convicted fraudster and tax evader Damir Vrbanović, a Croatian national.

What could have led to Zifa secretly investigating the coach it hired after being charmed by “his qualifications” is the alleged leaking of an email Loga sent to the Kenyan Football Federation in which he wrote that he would be working on his Uefa Pro Licence soon.

The application was made just before the Croat landed a job with Zifa as Warriors coach.

Zifa technical director Wilson Mutekede reportedly had a conversation with a Uefa instructor (name supplied), requesting him to check on behalf of Zifa if Loga’s Pro Licence was legit.

“It turns out there could be a huge scandal regarding these Uefa coaching badges held by most of these European coaches coaching in Africa. If you check, most of them mainly have African national teams or African clubs as their references in their CVs, an indication that they never coached in their native countries.

“Serious background checks need to be done by African nations and clubs when employing these folks,” said a source in South Africa, who is privy to the investigations being conducted by Zifa.

Mutekede could not be reached for comment. The Chronicle