Ian 'Dibango' Gorowa awaits fate

Warriors head coach Ian 'Dibango' Gorowa will have to wait a little longer for a decision on his fate as national football team coach as the ZIFA High Performance Committee, which was set to deliberate his future, is still to come up with a date for the decisive indaba.

This comes amid revelations that some members of the recently appointed committee were yet to respond to letters of engagement.

Gorowa future as Warriors coach was brought into question last week when Zimbabwe were eliminated from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers by the Taifa Stars of Tanzania in the opening round.

The Warriors were largely favoured to overcome the Tanzania test as the East Africans are considered continental football lightweights, but the Taifa Stars scored a surprise 3-2 aggregate victory over the Zimbabwe, who were bundled out in the preliminary stages for the first time ever.

The defeat sparked public uproar, with fans and football commentators pointing to several factors, among them Gorowa's technical shortcomings and questionable team selection as the reason for the team's failure.

And given that qualifying for the 2015 Afcon tournament was one of the targets ZIFA had reportedly given Gorowa when they extended his tenure to 2015 following what was considered a successful Africa Nations Championship (Chan) qualifying campaign earlier this year, the football mother body was largely expected to sack the coach.

However, instead of making a knee-jerk decision, ZIFA opted to establish a High Performance Committee that would review the Warriors' failed campaign and make recommendations to the ZIFA board.

The High Performance Committee, which is chaired by Zifa board member development John Phiri, was expected to meet this week to deliberate on the matter.

But yesterday Phiri indicated that the committee would only meet at a later date as some of the proposed members were yet to officially accept their appointment.

"The date (for the meeting) is yet to be set since some members who have been nominated to be part of the committee are still to respond to the offer," Phiri told The Zimbabwe Mail.

There were however conflicting statements on the actual role of the committee, with ZIFA technical director Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe playing down its decision making powers.

"The High Performance Committee was only ratified on Saturday, a day before the game against Tanzania and we are yet to meet as a committee, but what I can say is that it is a misconception that we are going to receive the report on the Warriors' performance directly from the coach. Instead the coach is going to submit the report to the chief executive officer," said Jongwe, who is part of the High Performance Committee.

"Another misconception is that the committee will be meeting to decide on Gorowa's future as coach. That is not true because we will be meeting just like what has always been the norm that coaches should submit reports of every game played regardless of whether we would have won, lost or drawn. It's the professional thing to do and it is a norm worldwide that the  coach should submit a report after every match."

On the other hand, Zifa spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela stated that the High Performance Committee would deliberate on the coach's report and team's performance before making recommendations on the way forward to the ZIFA board.

"Gorowa will meet with the technical committee in due course and give them his report. After the meeting with the coach, the technical committee will submit a report on the deliberations they would have had and make recommendations that will be used (by the ZIFA board) to determine the future of the coach," said Gwesela.