Warriors can do without Musona - Zifa

ZIFA president, Cuthbert Dube, believes the Warriors can march on without their talismanic forward, Knowledge Musona, and still qualify for the 2013 Nations Cup finals in South Africa next year.

The TSG Hoffenheim forward, who has turned into the heart and soul of the team with starring roles since making his debut two years ago, walked away from the Warriors after the explosion of a damaging dispute with the mother body.

Musona quit the Warriors on Tuesday demanding that Zifa apologise for dragging him into a match-fixing dispute, triggered by claims by chief executive Jonathan

Mashingaidze that he was spotted in the company of Henrietta Rushwaya, after returning home from a World Cup qualifier against Mozambique.

Zifa accuse Rushwaya as the mastermind of the Asiagate match-fixing scandal.

Musona's lawyers want Zifa to apologise publicly and also send official communication to world football governing body Fifa, advising them they were wrong to drag the star forward into the web of match-fixing cases that have been exploding on the domestic front.

Interestingly, Musona featured for the Warriors, in the week that Mashingaidze came up with the allegations, and scored the priceless goal that swept Zimbabwe into the final qualifying round of the 2013 Nations Cup finals.

Musona had also scored the golden goal, in Burundi, which eventually counted double when the two nations ended their qualifying contest on a 2-2 stalemate with the Warriors going through on the away goals rule.

The draw for the final round of qualifiers was held in Johannesburg on Thursday night and Zimbabwe will battle Angola over two legs for the right to qualify for our third appearance at the Nations Cup finals.

Speaking, for the first time since Musona decided to walk away, Dube told Star FM yesterday that the talismanic forward would not be missed by the Warriors and his personal decision to quit would not derail the senior national team.

Dube said he was surprised people were making an issue with Musona's decision to walk away.

"The issue of Knowledge Musona, I don't know why people are concerned with this," said Dube.

"It's his personal choice, it's his personal decision, you cannot force a person to join a national team, it's entirely up to him.

"And we are saying we have got hundred and hundred of players in the country and, honestly, a team made up of 11 players and not one player and it's not going to affect us at all."

The Zifa president welcomed the draw against Angola and revealed that his association would leave no stone unturned to ensure that the Warriors were in the best possible shape to tame the Palancas Negras.

Zimbabwe, who were not seeded, avoided the real heavyweights as they could have been paired against the likes of Cote d'Ivoire or Ghana and scores of local fans have welcomed the draw as a favourable one.

Dube is one of those who was happy to be paired against Angola.

"Pleased, very, very pleased and we are obviously geared for it and we are going to make a lot of technical preparations for this so that when we meet them, we don't do the wrong things, we do the correct things," said the Zifa boss.

"And we are hopeful that we will be able to be in South Africa for the Afcon 2013."

Dube said it was important that the best possible team be assembled and he was confident that his association would have closed the chapter on Asiagate, giving the coaches a possible wider selection of players ahead of the big match.

The Zifa boss insisted that a substantive Warriors coach had not yet been employed and while he didn't subscribe to the system of changing coaches frequently, his board would have to sit and make a decision on who will take charge of the team in the final qualifiers.

Rahman Gumbo, who has been leading the Warriors on an interim basis after substantive coach Norman Mapeza was suspended pending investigations into Asiagate, was in Johannesburg on Thursday night for the draw and welcomed the chance to take on the Angolans.

Dube said he did not want to be seen dictating terms when it comes to the Warriors' technical team and would let his entire board make a determination on the issue.

"I don't want to interfere in the technical selections of the team but I'm hoping that we are going to have the very best team even if it means drawing some players from Under-23s, we will do it for the sake of the nation and also for the sake of our pride as the Warriors of Zimbabwe," said the Zifa president.

"I don't think it's a good thing to change coaches, I think what is needed is to retain them so that they perform well, changing coaches like clothes is not a good way of running football.

"So, we hope that we will sit down as a board, as soon as we can, and we will come up with a substantive coach because, as you know, Rahman Gumbo is still in an acting capacity and there are a few logistics that we are waiting for and, once these are cleared, we will come up with a substantive coach and, come September, we should have announced the new coach."

The Zifa president said he was certain the dark chapter of Asiagate would have been closed in the coming few weeks.

"I can almost assure you that we will conclude Asiagate in the next few weeks so, by the time that we engage them (Angola), which I think is September, we would have cleared Asiagate," said Dube.

The Harare business executive also revealed that he did not lose a lot of sleep over critics who target him and his board, for criticism, whenever the Warriors lose.

"It's always human nature that when you have lost, you would like to apportion blame that such and such a thing happened, the coach didn't substitute people well, his team selection was poor, Zifa itself did not do proper preparations and so forth," said Dube.

"I'm not concerned with that type of thing.

"People can say their opinions and when they win, this is something strange, when a team wins, you don't get praises heaped on the coach and players."

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