It is not Warriors coach alone, but ZIFA system is rotten

0Shares

BY HOPE CHIZUZU

LIKE a seed, something must die before it can germinate into a resurrection for Zimbabwe football. The nation is crying. Covid-19 is ravaging. The economy is biting. The bitter winter is unforgiving. The divorce rates are skyrocketing……and even England failed to bring it home – instead it went to the royal holy city of Rome.

Every football lip is dry with anger over Warriors coach Loga – and rightfully so. Every coach is disappointed with the performance of the national team, but worse with Loga who has elected to pee on our heads by telling the public that he went to South Africa, not to win COSAFA but to try players and that his was a “very successful project”. Really?

To those who follow The Page, which over the years has grown to become a pink voice of football reason, remember how I lamented the selection of the dubious if clueless Loga as our number one coach.

Then, I explained the phony way of the recruitment was suspect. People pilloried me for dare saying he was a bogus coach who was taking home USD7000 (publicly) yet the FA paid out USD12000 every month as salary for this compound plumber.

Nobody bothered to find out why the deal was that shadowy and Gupta-like in every sense. But now after 12 games, the man has won just one game, against Botswana and yet you see him put his hands in the pocketed and walk tall like a manicured Chipinge zombie.

Well, that happens only in Zimbabwe where the public is fickle and the FA leaderless. Felton Kamambo, is effectively a hospital of ideas and his out patients department is manned by the Guptas going by the name of Sweeney Mushonga and Martin Kweza, while our football is dying.

Loga must go and he should have gone soon after CHAN when the technical and development committee comprising of Bryton Malandule, the corrupt Wilson Mutekede, Nelson Matongorere and Stanlous Nyachowe to name just four of the six, admitted to their mistake of recruiting the bogus Loga.

The committee wrote a damning but clear report to Zifa executive committee President Kamambo detailing the weaknesses and recommendation to axe the Croat, who is famed for an acerbic tongue and love for our sisters. Remember, how he desperately wanted Tafadzwa Bhasera to become a general manager before Wellington Mupandare landed the job.

What the public is not being told is that the technical committee recommended for the firing of Loga, days after CHAN, where he won zero games and flew straight to his homeland to have his passport and the work permit renewed.

It is a wonder Loga was not fired as recommended by the otherwise blundering committee chaired by Malandule. Further to that, there is no problem in firing him because his contract has a soft landing clause for both parties.

They are only required to give a month’s notice to release him from the contract and pay just two month’s salary as compensation. The clause apply to both.

So, why have ZIFA not fired Loga? Is someone or the members of the technical committee benefiting from sharing the USD5K from Loga vault? Is Mutekede too powerful to stop action on Loga? Is Kamambo too sick to act on three reports in his in tray, all recommending the firing of Loga?

While Loga is useless and clueless, why have the public not asked the role Tonderai Ndiraya plays in the recruitment of players into Warriors fold? Is Ndiraya such an indispensable national team coach despite demonstrating otherwise with his U20 and U23?

Why was he too angry and bitter with Loga this time around for calling certain players without his agreement? A repeat of the disastrous CHAN?

Why do we have coaches flooding Loga WhatsApp with names of players to call for national team duty and the same coaches turn and lead the criticism for the same? So, these agents have become so powerful they are responsible for calling some very average players including a certain goalkeeper?

So, these foreign based interested agents cum managers are key in choosing who to coach our national team and the players to play for the same? So someone is paying some players from his stable to be called from as far afield as the US?

Why did Loga not want to work with Ndiraya and Lloyd Chitembwe? Who made the decision to force Loga to get assistants from the technical committee? Was it a condition for getting the job after a short list of final six included some popular local choices?

Why did Mutekede make the final selection of Loga alone via virtual meeting yet the committee has six people including Malandule, the chairman? Who was taking the notes? Who verified his coaching credentials? Why did Mutekede not like Chitembwe to be part of the team? How was the issue solved?

Why were Malandule concerns about not having a named assistant from Southern region not considered? Where these issues ever discussed and solved by Zifa Congress as recommended by the technical committee? When will this collective madness end with World Cup qualifiers soon to start?

In fact, haven’t we seen enough of the shortcoming of the technical committee, coaching department and some dubious players called to toyi-toyi with our emotion under the guise of playing for the national team?
Well, Loga should go yesterday. No jokes about this. His entire bench too must follow him home. We must be worried about our faith if the devil sings our praise as is happening now.

In the interim we need coaches such as Norman Mapeza, Charlie Mhlauri, Ian Gorowa, Kaitano Tembo and Moses Chunga for a complete departure from the scene of this accident.

We are not waiting for forensic experts to comb the area…it is our national pride at stake. By the way we cannot rig the economy, we cannot rig the football results.

And today is my birthday, so spare me the bashing…..a cake has already been delivered to my office…but for football it has still not been cut or shared.

Log out and EXIT.