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NewsDay

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Well done Warriors but…

Columnists
THE Warriors are through to the final qualifying round of the 2016 African Nations Championships (Chan) after a 0-0 draw (2-0 aggregate win) over Comoros on Saturday despite the shambolic preparations.

THE Warriors are through to the final qualifying round of the 2016 African Nations Championships (Chan) after a 0-0 draw (2-0 aggregate win) over Comoros on Saturday despite the shambolic preparations.

Next up is Lesotho in October.

The Warriors arrived in Moroni three hours before the match, thanks to the efforts of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) that worked round the clock to ensure a chartered flight from Air Zimbabwe was available for the national cause.

Special mention goes to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for providing that guarantee for the chartered plane.

Most importantly, Zimbabweans have to thank the Warriors players and the Kalisto Pasuwa-led technical team for this feat.

While the SRC must work closely with Zifa because the organisation is broke and needs refinancing, Zifa must exhibit a great deal of professionalism if the national team must move forward.

The fact that the SRC has taken it upon themselves to pay Pasuwa shows seriousness on the part of the supreme sports body and a major shift in the way the sports body wants to administer football going forward.

Zimbabweans have not lost focus of the fact that on July 19, there is South Africa for the Under-23 Championships first leg whose return leg is on August 2. This could mean that there is no time for Zifa to relax, but simply put its house in order.

Although the first leg is at home, there are still issues of camping and allowances that need to be sorted out for the local players. We believe that the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture should make enough noise to get things done across all sporting disciplines.

There are 52 registered sporting disciplines in Zimbabwe, all of them in financial doldrums and surviving on individuals or corporate support. There is no doubt that the Tapiwa Matangaidze-led committee should also bring before it Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to understand government budgetary support for sport in the country.

Sport is an industry capable of creating millions of jobs, and it is our belief that the Zanu PF government should ensure that sport is supported from central government.

Elsewhere, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) was ordered to hire a coach by their government. During that same month, when the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) wanted to fire coach Young Chimodzi, they first had to advise government.

It is a fact that these two governments are paying the national coaches and so can easily demand results/changes when things are not going the way they are expected to be.

But, locally, government has developed a serious culture of the blame game. None of the decision-making bodies accept that national teams will be on national duty. They believe that it’s an association’s business. Yet, when things go wrong, they raise their voices the loudest.

Government should take responsibility and fund every sector of the economy, including sport. They should also demand results and accountability from the respective administrators of the various sporting disciplines in the country.

Regrettably, the Cuthbert Dube-led Zifa is a disaster. It has nothing interesting coming out of it. In fact, the national team coach is surviving out of his patriotism otherwise if he was somebody else he could have run away a long time ago because of the way Dube and his chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze are administering the game of football, ironically the most popular sport in the country.

Sadly, Zifa has always been broke, will constantly be broke and will continually have leadership problems if the challenges at the association are not looked into in a holistic manner.

The rot at Zifa must be addressed sooner rather later.