The ManicaPost
ESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction.
As with this career path that Yours Truly has been treading for some years now, leading teams out of the dugout can be quite taxing.
But it is not so much about the challenges or occupational hazards that come and go with being in the trenches of journalism or being a football coach as the ungrateful nature of these professions.
Be a vocational calling as they may be, being a journalist and a gaffer could be gratifying while it lasts but, all the same, remain thankless.
Even as one breaks sweat, entirely putting in their all into the shift, these are two careers that spew jealousy – or hatred even, sometimes – when they see others with raw potential coming up that they would want to see them down and out.
About journalistic efforts being largely unappreciated in some circles is a story I will leave for another day.
Today’s on the ingratitude that coaches suffer during and after their tenures. News this week that former Mighty Warriors tactician, Shadreck Mlauzi, has had his contract terminated and asked to return the car he was using — a Toyota Hilux Double Cab — made sad reading.
Not that Mlauzi would last forever in his position or perhaps the vehicle was not for his keeps, but the manner the severance between the coach and the association is being handled is just farcical.
It leaves a lot to be desired and is akin to telling the humble high school physical education teacher that he can go and hug a cactus.
Maybe the gesture did not extend to him as well, but even as Zifa benefactor, Wicknell Chivayo handed over the car to Mlauzi’s Warriors counterpart, Kallisto Pasuwa he categorically stated his terms.
“The vehicle rightfully and lawfully belongs to him (Pasuwa) and there is no relationship between the deal for the vehicle and Zifa, so whether he is still national coach or not, he gets to keep that vehicle . . . it was not a sponsorship to Zifa,”
Chivayo was quoted as telling our sister publication The Herald last February.Now, exactly a year down the line, Zifa is demanding the car back.
Never mind Mlauzi had hitherto had to rely on public transport during the discharge of his duties as the national team coach.
And this is the man who is said to have gone on for months on end without receiving his monthly salary.
It is understood that Mlauzi is owed as much as up to $100 000 in salary arrears as well as appearance fees for qualifying the Mighty Warriors to the Africa Women Cup of Nations and the Olympics Games last year.
Even as he led the senior women side to two major tournament finals, Zifa still feel he did not do enough. Well, maybe in terms of progressing to the latter stages of the competitions, yes, but what investment did Zifa put into the team in terms of adequate preparations for the finals?
Following this fallout, does Mlauzi, in pursuing the matter, have to take recourse to legal action to recover the outstanding money that the Association still owes him?
Little wonder then Zifa ran into those problems with former Warriors coach, Valinhos who was owed about $81 000, a situation that resulted in our national team being kicked out of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers which had been subscribed to by 208 nations after the association failed to pay the Brazilian gaffer. With Tom Saintfiet, another ex-national team coach, we, again, risked being chucked out of the 2022 World Cup if we had failed to pay the Belgian the $180 000 Zifa owed him until benefactor Wicknell Chivayo timeously intervened to save the blushes.
Following that legal showdown, both expatriate coaches obtained a writ of execution in damages and do Zifa need to go down that path again with the ex-Mighty Warriors tactician? As the brouhaha between our football governing body and former national team coaches continues, we need to spare a thought for Mlauzi.
What does he walk away with to show for his efforts and time with the senior women’s side? Is this the association’s way of saying thank you to the coach?
Maybe this is a case of a prophet having no honour in their own homeland. Zifa must make peace with their past and handle the present properly so that it does not get to mess up the future. Oh, by the way, Friday Football Echoes signs out for now as Yours Truly has to gasp for breathe in preparation for more drama as the showdown between Zifa and Pasuwa looms on the horizon.
It’s Game On, Play On!
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