Sports / Soccer
No joy for Warriors
03 Apr 2014 at 10:10hrs | Views
The national football team, the Warriors, who represented the country with distinction in the Orange Africa Nations Championship (Chan) staged in South Africa early this year, are still in the dark over when they will get their share of the prize money Zimbabwe got for reaching the semi-finals in the tournament.
Zimbabwe got $250 000 from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) for finishing fourth in the third edition of the tournament, and the 23 players along with the Ian Gorowa-led technical team, had been made to believe that they were going to share half of the earnings among themselves, with the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) retaining the other half.
On Wednesday, Zifa, through its finance department, was supposed to have started the payment process, but by end of day, had not done so, with several players who took part at Chan telling The Zimbabwe Mail that they were still in the dark regarding when they would get paid.
Warriors manager, Shariff Mussa, who is understood to be working closely with the finance department at Zifa, confirmed that a determination was yet to be made regarding the disbursement of the prize money.
"We were supposed to meet Wednesday with the finance people at Zifa, but it's unfortunate that we did not meet as I had some pressing business issues and hopefully will be back in town Thursday or Friday and we'll see what the schedule will be like," said Mussa.
"It is only after meeting the finance people that we will know how much will be given to fund the payments and also how the payments will be done, that is, whether it will be once-off payments or they should be paid in instalments. But all that will be discussed when we meet them."
Efforts to get a comment from Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze were fruitless as his phone was not reachable.
But one of the Warriors players who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "As for me, I am yet to receive the money. Maybe will receive something in the coming days, but to be frank, I do not know if we will get it. I suppose we just have to keep the faith though chances are that we may not even get a cent from them (Zifa) since they have a huge $5m debt."
A member of the Warriors technical team expressed the same sentiments, stating that they were still to receive communication from Zifa on the issue.
He also revealed that players were owed around $5 000 each, while the technical team was supposed to receive $7 000 apiece for their historic achievement in South Africa.
The Warriors finished fourth in the Chan tournament after crashing out in the semi-finals following a penalty shoot-out defeat by eventual winners Libya.
Zimbabwe went on to lose 1-0 to their nemesis, Nigeria, in the third and fourth place play-off which they completed with 10-men after Masimba Mambare was sent-off early in the first half of the match.
Warriors players Partson Jaure and Kudakwashe Mahachi were named in the Chan All-Star team, an indication of the huge impression Zimbabwe made in the tournament.
Zimbabwe got $250 000 from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) for finishing fourth in the third edition of the tournament, and the 23 players along with the Ian Gorowa-led technical team, had been made to believe that they were going to share half of the earnings among themselves, with the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) retaining the other half.
On Wednesday, Zifa, through its finance department, was supposed to have started the payment process, but by end of day, had not done so, with several players who took part at Chan telling The Zimbabwe Mail that they were still in the dark regarding when they would get paid.
Warriors manager, Shariff Mussa, who is understood to be working closely with the finance department at Zifa, confirmed that a determination was yet to be made regarding the disbursement of the prize money.
"We were supposed to meet Wednesday with the finance people at Zifa, but it's unfortunate that we did not meet as I had some pressing business issues and hopefully will be back in town Thursday or Friday and we'll see what the schedule will be like," said Mussa.
"It is only after meeting the finance people that we will know how much will be given to fund the payments and also how the payments will be done, that is, whether it will be once-off payments or they should be paid in instalments. But all that will be discussed when we meet them."
Efforts to get a comment from Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze were fruitless as his phone was not reachable.
But one of the Warriors players who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "As for me, I am yet to receive the money. Maybe will receive something in the coming days, but to be frank, I do not know if we will get it. I suppose we just have to keep the faith though chances are that we may not even get a cent from them (Zifa) since they have a huge $5m debt."
A member of the Warriors technical team expressed the same sentiments, stating that they were still to receive communication from Zifa on the issue.
He also revealed that players were owed around $5 000 each, while the technical team was supposed to receive $7 000 apiece for their historic achievement in South Africa.
The Warriors finished fourth in the Chan tournament after crashing out in the semi-finals following a penalty shoot-out defeat by eventual winners Libya.
Zimbabwe went on to lose 1-0 to their nemesis, Nigeria, in the third and fourth place play-off which they completed with 10-men after Masimba Mambare was sent-off early in the first half of the match.
Warriors players Partson Jaure and Kudakwashe Mahachi were named in the Chan All-Star team, an indication of the huge impression Zimbabwe made in the tournament.
Source - Zim Mail
