The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
WARRIORS’ gaffer, Kalisto Pasuwa, will probably feel used and dumped after the announcement that his contract will be terminated at the end of this month when he was forced to use his personal training equipment during the recent Gabon Africa Cup of Nations expedition after the country’s soccer mother body – Zifa – failed to provide basic training equipment that include markers, cones, bibs and hurdles for the national team.
Zimbabwe qualified for the third Africa Cup of Nations finals and as is becoming the norm, the Warriors bowed out in the group stages of the continental football showpiece.
In the aftermath of Afcon Gabon 2017, debate on whether Pasuwa should remain or leave the highest football coaching job on the domestic scene has gathered momentum with divergent views being proffered from different angles.
However, the shoddy preparations, player industrial action and lack of training equipment – all a result of Zifa’s inefficiency and ineptness – seem to have been conveniently forgotten and the technical team’s shortcomings taking precedence than anything else.
Today, Post Sport can reveal that Pasuwa was forced to use his personal training equipment during the recent Gabon Africa Cup of Nations expedition after the country’s soccer mother body – Zifa – failed to provide basic training equipment that include markers, cones, bibs and hurdles for the national team.
According to the national team coach’s report on his team’s performance in Gabon, which this newspaper is in possession of, considerable amount of time that could have been used to conduct training was wasted on meetings to solve welfare issues.
“The training equipment that we requested include 60 markers, 10 medium cones, 10 large cones, two agility ladders, 60 training bibs, 30 footballs (tournament footballs), hurdles six medium, six large, three ball carry nets.
“Availed training equipment was markers 0, cones 0, agility ladders 0, bibs 0, hurdles 0, tournament footballs 20 (given two days before departure), alternative balls 20, head coach had to use his own equipment,” reads part of Pasuwa’s report to the High Performance Committee.
Pasuwa’s report went on to paint a sad picture about the lack of preparedness and resources that affected the Warriors before and during their stay in Gabon.
“Playing kit: We used an alternative for the friendly match at the tournament. Official kit was availed for the second game. We did not have enough preparations necessary for a tournament of this magnitude. We had proposed to start camp on December 22, 2016 until January 5, 2017 when we would leave for the scheduled friendly against Gabon in Cameroon.
“We did not manage to do that as we were told that there was no money to get us into camp. As if that was enough, we failed to get small provisions like footballs. We even failed to train for some days because the training venues had not been secured. Another issue that affected us was that of accommodation.
“We were told to go to the Zifa Village and camp there, but the players refused citing various issues like hygienic state of the place among other issues. This adversely affected the team as most of the time was spent on meetings, trying to resolve issues instead of training,” reads part of Pasuwa’s report.
Post Sport has it on good authority that the reports compiled by Pasuwa and manager, Sharif Mussa, however, were rejected by the Zifa-appointed High Performance Committee owing to lack of requisite detail from the two official in relation to their portfolios.
