Gorowa demands his dues from Zifa

IN what can be described as a classic case of blackmail, embattled Zimbabwe Warriors coach Ian Gorowa has allegedly demanded his dues from the Zimbabwe Football Association before he can submit the report on the failed 2015 Africa Cup of Nations campaign.

Impeccable sources within Zifa revealed that there were several efforts by the Zifa secretariat to coerce him to hand in the report but on one occasion he informed them he would only supply his analysis once he had been paid his outstanding monies.

The Zifa High Performance Technical Committee met on Wednesday and failed to come up with any concrete conclusion on what affected the Warriors performance, when they floundered to a 3-2 aggregate loss to Tanzania in the first round of the Afcon qualifiers, due to the unavailability of the report from the head coach.

"The Zifa secretariat called him requesting that he submit the report on four occasions and at one time he said he will only do so when Zifa have paid him his outstanding monies," said the source.

It could not be established how much Gorowa is owed by the cash-strapped national football association.

Gorowa, who is in South Africa, refused to respond to questions posed to him saying Zifa were the right people to speak on the issue.

"I have got no comment on that, Zifa are the ones who should speak about the issue," said the former Mamelodi Sundowns caretaker coach.

HPTC vice-chairman Gibson Homela said they were surprised that Gorowa was yet to hand in his report.

The national team coach was given up to Friday to submit the report.

"It was difficult for us to come up with a detailed analysis and to come up with a remedy when we did not have a report from the head coach. Going into the meeting we thought we would go through the report and then discuss its contents. We do not know why he has not submitted the report but as you are aware we have given him until 4 July to submit the report," he said.

Homela said it was shocking that it was only the senior men's national team report that was missing as other representative sides that had participated in competitions recently had submitted theirs.

He said the under-20 and Mighty Warriors technical departments had submitted their reports but they decided they would discuss all the reports once they had received Gorowa's.

The women's team was recently knocked out by Zambia in the final round of the Africa Women's Championship qualifiers, scheduled for Namibia later this year, while the under-20 team participated in the Cosafa Youth Championships in December last year.

It is standard practice that technical departments submit reports after international assignments.

Homela added they were also equally shocked why Gorowa had not handed in his curriculum vitae to the Zifa secretariat.

"All other coaches submitted their CVs, it was only the Warriors coach's CV that was not there but we hope he will be submitting it soon as per our request," he said.

Zifa spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela declined to shed light on the issue saying Gorowa should speak for himself and explain why he is yet to submit his report after the Warriors' disastrous assignment against Tanzania.

He also could not confirm whether Zifa owed the South African-based coach any outstanding salaries.

The HPTC is headed by Zifa board member John Phiri and also includes Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association head, Bhekimpilo Nyoni, former Blue Ribbon coach Misheck Chidzambwa, Charles Sibanda, Cosmas Zulu, Mike Ngore and Zifa technical director, Takaendesa Jongwe.