Pagels to name Warriors squad for Egypt tie

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WARRIORS coach Klaus Dieter Pagels will announce his provisional squad this week that will do duty in Egypt later this month.

WARRIORS coach Klaus Dieter Pagels will announce his provisional squad this week that will do duty in Egypt later this month.

BY BRIAN NKIWANE

The new-look Warriors will travel to Egypt for their World Cup qualifier against the host after playing two matches in the same campaign, losing 1-0 to Guinea at home before playing a goalless draw against Mozambique away in Maputo.

The World Cup qualifier will be played in Alexandria on March 26.

A lot of surprises are expected as Pagels brewed a shocker with some surprise inclusions in the team that played Botswana in a friendly match in Harare last month.

The team won 2-1. The German coach handed the armband to former Dynamos midfielder Denver Mukamba and a lot more surprises are expected as he intensifies his search for what he calls “fast footballers” who can be part of his “Tiki Taka” type of football which is tiresome for opponents to follow.

Speaking to Standardsport, Zifa president Cuthbert Dube said with the assistance of the newly commissioned Football Trust, he was optimistic that the Warriors are going to fulfill the Egypt trip.

“We have settled for a US$300 000 budget so that we cover everything we require.

“The initial budget for the trip is around US$208 000 but we need extra money so that we can pay our boys handsomely. We have since learnt a lot about paying players well,” Dube said.

Zifa has for the third time written to Fifa and CAF requesting that the match be played at a neutral venue, owing to the volatile situation in Egypt.

“We have written for the third time to Fifa and CAF to have the match played at a neutral venue. We do not want to take chances with the lives of our players.

“Egypt has insisted that Alexandra (which is 250 km from Cairo) is safe for the match but we are saying we cannot take any chances, so we will be getting their final response on Tuesday”.

Meanwhile, the beleaguered association has written yet another letter to Fifa seeking funding to pay outstanding bills to the Justice Ahmed Ibrahim’s committee that was investigating the Asiagate scandal.

“We have written to Fifa seeking for a grant to settle the outstanding bill. The committee did a good job. We thought that it was going to be an easy task but everyone saw how long the process took,” Dube concluded