THE Zimbabwe Football Asso-ciation (Zifa) will next week invite applications for the substantive Warriors mentor, the Zifa Board agreed last night.

The Zifa Board meeting was still on at the time of going to press last night but it had agreed that caretaker coach Norman Mapeza would continue in that role, while the football association hunted for a substantive coach.

“Nothing new. We continue with Mapeza (in acting capacity). We have set a committee to interview the coaches once adverts have been flighted. For now the status quo remains,” a Zifa board member said last night.

 There had been attempts by some board members particularly from the Southern Region led by Benedict Moyo and Ndumiso Gumede to push for the inclusion of the Warriors legend Peter Ndlovu in the current technical set-up.

However they were concerns by some board members that Ndlovu did not have the coaching credentials to take the Warriors’ hot seat or even to work as an assistant coach.

Ndlovu, a veteran of 100 international caps has turned to coaching and was part of a class that attended a high-level Caf C-Licence course at Prince Edward early this year.

Ndlovu is the Warriors’ most decorated captain having led the senior team to successive African Cup of Nations finals in 2004 and 2006.

The former Coventry, Sheffield United and Mamelodi Sundowns striker — who has attained some coaching badges since his time in England has been shuttling between Johannesburg and Harare attending coaching courses. He was recently in Masvingo on another coaching programme.
It remains to been seen whether, Zifa will attract credible coaches when the advertisements are placed in the coming weeks as the football mother body is broke.

The association was taken to the High Court last week by former national team coach Sunday Chidzambwa who is owed over US$67 000 in salaries dating back to November 2008. 

Chidzambwa quit the Warriors in May this year and moved to join  South African premiership side Free  State Stars. He was reportedly earning US$5 000 per month as the national team coach but hardly got his salary each month.

In the meantime, Mapeza will be assisted by Motor Action man-ager Joey Antipas. The goal-keepers coach is Brenna Msiska while other backroom staff such fitness trainer Thompson Matenda and team doctor Edward Chagonda are also expected to be part of the senior national team technical department.
Mapeza began his playing career with Darryn Textiles. He moved to Europe to play with Soko Pniewy in the Polish Ekstraklasa for the 1993-94 season. Mapeza went on to  play for several clubs in the Türkish Super League, including Galata- saray SK Ankaragücü, Altay SK and Malatyaspor.

Mapeza also coached the Zim- babwe Under-23 team and coached Monomotapa on the domestic scene before throwing in the towel in unexplained circumstances in 2009.

Zimbabwe will start their campaign in the 2012 Africa Nations Cup with a tricky away fixture against Liberia between September 3-5.
Zimbabwe are in Group 1 which also includes Cape Verde and Mali. The Warriors who are ranked 110 in the world have already suffered the ignominy of missing out on the 2008 (Ghana) and 2010 (Angola) editions of the African Nations Cup.

Meanwhile Zifa will also invite applicants to fill the Under 17, 20, 23 and the women’s Mighty Warriors coaching posts despite pulling out of the junior tour-naments this year due to financial constraints.
The invitations for applicants for the Warriors coaching post is probably a first by the Zifa board led by president Cuthbert Dube, who was ushered into office on March 27 this year.

In the past the other boards led by Wellington Nyatanga and Rafiq Khan have handpicked the national team coaches. The new Warriors coach is expected to get a helping hand from a technical advisor German national Klaus-Dieter Pagels, who will come to Zimbabwe on a bilateral agreement between Zimbabwe and the German government.

Germany will foot his salary and upkeep while in Zimbabwe.  Pagels is expected in the country on August 1.

BY FANUEL VIRIRI

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