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Chunga calls out Zifa

Sport
Zimbabwe football legend Moses Chunga has challenged Zifa to make no exemptions in their demands for the Caf A coaching badge for national team and Premier Soccer League coaches.

Zimbabwe football legend Moses Chunga has challenged Zifa to make no exemptions in their demands for the Caf A coaching badge for national team and Premier Soccer League coaches.

BY TERRY MADYAUTA

Chunga said the laws should be applied fairly to everyone and wants the association to quickly facilitate the courses so that coaches can improve themselves.

A number of coaches have lost their jobs due to lack of the qualification and Chunga himself has been one of the victims of this law.

Club licensing rules that are being applied by Zifa demand that all national team coaches as well as top-flight league gaffers and their assistants should possess the Caf A licence qualification. But there are some coaches who have been exempted on the grounds of their previous achievements and Chunga wants the waivers to be struck off.

“As a nation, we need to be serious about our game. We have become more of an academic and cry baby nation. We can no longer stick to the basics of our game,” he said.

“It’s a very sad story, for us. The Caf A licence requirement is important, no one must be exempted. But what some of us should be doing is to lobby for these courses to return rather than pester Zifa to waiver it.

“For myself, I would rather work with the juniors until I get the qualification. What is the purpose of laws if no one wants to follow them? We have to follow continental trends. That way, I think we can improve our game.”

Chunga himself does not have the Caf A coaching badge and has been on the sidelines since his last stint at Harare City in 2016, but says prodding Zifa for exemption will only pull back the standardisation progress that has been made.

Luke Petros, who led WhaWha FC’s return to the top-flight after winning the Zifa Central Region Championship, could lose his job because he does not possess the Caf A coaching badge.

At the start of the 2019 season, there was furore over Joel Luphahla, who had led TelOne into the topflight, but was told he could not work as the head coach since he did not have the qualification.

Although he remained the coach, officially, he had a different role.

Joey Antipas has been exempted by virtue of having won a league title with Chicken Inn in 2015. Zifa also employed him as the interim national team coach for the last few months despite the law demanding that the Warriors coaches must be in possession of the Caf A qualification.