Sports / Soccer
Warriors coach in the spotlight
25 Jun 2014 at 09:12hrs | Views
Warriors coach Ian Gorowa's future will be among the major issues under discussion when the ZIFA High Performance Committee finally meets for the first time today.
The committee, which is chaired by ZIFA board member development John Phiri, was initially scheduled to meet a fortnight ago, but the gathering was deferred as some members of the newly constituted committee were yet to respond to letters of engagement by the football mother body's board.
It however appears the appointments have been finalised after Phiri confirmed today's meeting at which the Warriors' recent failure is expected to be a major talking point.
Zimbabwe were eliminated from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers in the preliminary round earlier this month after playing out a 2-2 draw with the Taifa Stars of Tanzania at the National Sports Stadium in the capital to bow out 2-3 on aggregate.
The defeat sparked national outrage, with some sections of the football community calling for the dismissal of Gorowa, who they felt came up short tactically, while his team selection was also questioned.
ZIFA, to their credit, avoided a knee-jerk decision and instead constituted the High Performance Committee that is now expected to play a major role in determining Gorowa's future as national team head coach.
However, yesterday Phiri played down his committee's decision making powers, insisting they would only play an advisory role to the final decision makers, the ZIFA board.
"We are very much behind in terms of discharging our mandate as the committee's set up was delayed. But tomorrow we will be discussing all the pertinent issues, which I have to emphasise are not only limited to the Warriors," said Phiri.
"Yes, the Warriors and the rest of our national teams will be under discussion and we will also be looking at issues such as the development of the girl child in the sport, the upcoming Cosafa Cup and 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers.
"We will discuss and review the games played by the current national team though we are yet to receive the coach's report as it is supposed to be passed onto us by the chief executive (Jonathan Mashingaidze) as the coaches write through him.
"We understand there are some who are yet to bring in their reports and we hope we might get them today. But it must be noted that we are not the final decision makers, we play an advisory role."
Other members of the High Performance Committee are Gibson Homela, Misheck Chidzambwa, Charles Sibanda, former Highlanders assistant coach Cosmas "Tsano" Zulu, the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association (Zisca) chairman Bhekimpilo Nyoni, ZIFA technical director Maxwell Takaendesa, former ZIFA board member competitions Benedict Moyo and ZIFA coaches administrator Mike Ngore.
The committee, which is chaired by ZIFA board member development John Phiri, was initially scheduled to meet a fortnight ago, but the gathering was deferred as some members of the newly constituted committee were yet to respond to letters of engagement by the football mother body's board.
It however appears the appointments have been finalised after Phiri confirmed today's meeting at which the Warriors' recent failure is expected to be a major talking point.
Zimbabwe were eliminated from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers in the preliminary round earlier this month after playing out a 2-2 draw with the Taifa Stars of Tanzania at the National Sports Stadium in the capital to bow out 2-3 on aggregate.
The defeat sparked national outrage, with some sections of the football community calling for the dismissal of Gorowa, who they felt came up short tactically, while his team selection was also questioned.
ZIFA, to their credit, avoided a knee-jerk decision and instead constituted the High Performance Committee that is now expected to play a major role in determining Gorowa's future as national team head coach.
However, yesterday Phiri played down his committee's decision making powers, insisting they would only play an advisory role to the final decision makers, the ZIFA board.
"We are very much behind in terms of discharging our mandate as the committee's set up was delayed. But tomorrow we will be discussing all the pertinent issues, which I have to emphasise are not only limited to the Warriors," said Phiri.
"Yes, the Warriors and the rest of our national teams will be under discussion and we will also be looking at issues such as the development of the girl child in the sport, the upcoming Cosafa Cup and 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers.
"We will discuss and review the games played by the current national team though we are yet to receive the coach's report as it is supposed to be passed onto us by the chief executive (Jonathan Mashingaidze) as the coaches write through him.
"We understand there are some who are yet to bring in their reports and we hope we might get them today. But it must be noted that we are not the final decision makers, we play an advisory role."
Other members of the High Performance Committee are Gibson Homela, Misheck Chidzambwa, Charles Sibanda, former Highlanders assistant coach Cosmas "Tsano" Zulu, the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association (Zisca) chairman Bhekimpilo Nyoni, ZIFA technical director Maxwell Takaendesa, former ZIFA board member competitions Benedict Moyo and ZIFA coaches administrator Mike Ngore.
Source - The Zim Mail
