THE Mighty Warriors became the latest national football team to crash out of a continental competition – the African Women Championships (AWC) – after they fell 2-0 on aggregate to Zambia on Sunday.
Newsday Editorial
Their male counterparts – the Warriors – drew 2-2 against Tanzania the previous weekend to bow out of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers 3-2 on aggregate.
It has been a disaster in the making for Zimbabwe’s national teams due to a plethora of problems and the easiest way to deal with them, some believe, was to fire the coaches and the Zifa Board.
However, the problems will always be there as long as challenges affecting the national teams are personalised by targeting individuals in charge of football or the various national teams.
The trends that followed the two teams are similar –demand more money, boycott training and then lose. Well, that completes a miserable two weeks for Zimbabwean football lovers, who now have to take their sorrows to the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League and the Fifa World Cup.
The difference between Zambia and Zimbabwe is “naked”. The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is led by a former footballer, who has all the football contacts in the world, including technical supplier Nike.
Zifa is led by Cuthbert Dube, a businessman, who might not even know where Luveve Stadium is and perhaps has never watched a football match there.
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In 2008, FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya made it clear that if one of their national teams does not win an Afcon tourney, then he would have failed to develop the game in Zambia.
“If we don’t win one of two Afcons in 2012 and 2013, we may never do. Our girls should by 2015 be good enough to go to an Afcon,” Kalusha said then. He achieved all those goals.
The Zambia Under-15 women’s team qualified for the Fifa World Cup that was staged in Costa Rica and now their senior women’s team have qualified for the AWC after thrashing Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors.
Who knows, they might be in the top three at the end of the finals in Namibia later this year and earn a ticket to the Women’s World Cup.
Their men’s team was crowned the 2012 African champions. This can only happen when there is proper planning and putting the right people in charge of the game, harnessing the little resources available, setting realistic targets and hiring visionary coaches.
Sport, Arts and Culture minister Andrew Langa has suggested that a football indaba be held as a matter of urgency as the solution does not lie in firing the Dube-led Zifa Board, which will, no doubt, invite sanctions from world football governing body Fifa.
Under ex-minister David Coltart, Zimbabwe had one such indaba, but the country is yet to establish what the fruits of that gathering were. Perhaps it is time to be realistic and forgo another indaba, which will gobble the little resources that are available.
It is important to note that it will take more than roundtables to get the country’s football right. Besides talkshops, Zimbabwe needs the money to finance and develop football.
Zimbabwe’s football administrators must shape up or ship out!
