Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor—
Ian Gorowa
IAN Gorowa’s future with the Warriors and that of all national teams’ coaches, will be decided in Harare next Wednesday when the Zifa board meets to table recommendations by their High Performance Committee. Gorowa’s future with the Warriors has been a matter of intense speculation since the Warriors crashed out of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers following a 3-2 aggregate loss to Tanzania at the preliminary round stage.
The Warriors coach had initially thought of throwing in the towel, moments after Zimbabwe’s shock defeat by the Taifa Stars, but the former Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns coach decided to stay on and try and rebuild a new senior side for future assignments.
However, Gorowa, never a favourite of controversial High Performance Committee vice-chairman Gibson Homela, seemed to have eventually fallen out with the committee that is headed by Zifa board member John Phiri.
A public spat then ensued after Homela publicly questioned Gorowa’s credentials and queried the manner in which Zifa had hired the former Zimbabwe striker and widened the rift between the pair, which had earlier been torched by the former’s criticism of the Warriors coach’s tactics during the 2014 African Nation Championships in South Africa.
Former Zimbabwe Saints and Warriors coach Homela also gave the biggest possible hint that Zifa would restructure their national teams’ structures when he revealed that his committee had asked that all national coaches should re-submit their CVs and told the media that Gorowa had not tendered his.
Last Thursday, Zifa held a board meeting, ostensibly to prepare for an extraordinary meeting of the assembly, announce their sub-committee which will overall be supervised by association president Cuthbert Dube and his deputy Omega Sibanda.
The board meeting also laid the ground work for their two-day strategic retreat staged at the Zifa Village in Mt Hampden last weekend.
During the meeting, Phiri presented the HPC’s report on the state of all national men and women’s teams and it is that document and a raft of recommendations which is reportedly contained in the dossier, which the Zifa board would now discuss.
Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze said the HPC’s report would guide their debate on how best to set up the technical structures of the national teams.
There is no doubting, however, that the Warriors, will naturally come under the spotlight given that they remain the country’s flagship soccer team despite their frustrating failures and Gorowa’s fate will headline that of other coaches such as Mighty Warriors’ Rosemary Mugadza, Young Mighty Warriors gaffer Langton Giwa and men’s Under-20 mentor Jairos Tapera.
With Cosafa yesterday officially announcing that the Senior Challenge Cup, which had been scheduled for Botswana next month had been cancelled, the Warriors looks set to be out of competitive action for a longer period.
“Due to financial and logistical constraints, the Cosafa Cup, which was due to be played in Botswana in September 2014, has had to be cancelled,” Cosafa president Suketu Patel said in statement.
“Cosafa is very grateful to the Botswana Football Association and in particular to President Tebogo Sebego, for the huge efforts made to actualise this tournament.
“In the meantime Cosafa is pleased to report that it has now secured the necessary resources to host a tournament in November/December of this year. One of the requirements of the commercial partners is that the tournament is played in their country and Cosafa has written to the relevant national association to seek permission to host the 2014 Cosafa Cup in their territory.
“Currently we await response to our request which has been promised by the end of this week, after which we will make a full press briefing on this matter,” Patel said.
Mashingaidze said the board would use next Wednesday’s indaba to fine-tune a presentation that Zifa are expected to make before the parliamentary portfolio committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture the following day.
“There are three main items on the agenda of the board meeting next Wednesday and the business of the day will be to discuss the presentation to be made to parliament, the national teams in view of the report compiled by the High Performance Committee and the benchmarks that have been set as a result of the strategic planning retreat,’’ Mashingaidze said.
The Zifa chief executive appeared a relieved man that they will make their latest appearance at the August House with the assembly having ratified the association’s audited accounts from 2011 to 2013.
“Our accounts from 2011, 2012 and 2013 have now been ratified and when we go to Parliament we will have an opportunity to appraise our legislators on the strategic plan framework which covers seven key result areas and the turnaround strategy that we want to embark on.
“We would also still want to reiterate that despite coming up with our own initiatives, Government support remains necessary for our national teams and we hope Parliament will assist us in that regard,’’ Mashingaidze said.
There have also been calls on Zifa from across the board for the association to put more energy on youth development which would provide the launch pad on which the next generation of Warriors could be built.
Although Zifa are still to make an official announcement, there are indications that Dynamos gaffer Callisto Pasuwa will be installed the substantive national Under-23 coach with either of Hwange’s Nation Dube and Saul Chaminuka of ZPC Kariba likely to come in as his assistants.
Pasuwa was meant to be an assistant to Peter Ndlovu in the Under-23 set up but the legendary former Zimbabwe skipper left to join Mamelodi Sundowns without being accorded a chance of ever having had an opportunity to assemble his squad and preside over any assignment.
Instead, Ndlovu only served as one of the assistants to Rahman Gumbo during the Warriors’ doomed 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.
But there are indications that the Under-23 side looks set to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers.
It was however, not immediately clear whether the board will adopt the HPC report and all its recommendations without any amendments or will use it for reference before making their own decisions.