The Sunday News
Allan Foti
A section of Zimbabwe’s football coaches have expressed their displeasure at the appointment of Sunday Chidzambwa as national team head coach.
“Mhofu” was recently named as Warriors’ substantive head coach after having served as a caretaker coach and going on to win a fifth Cosafa Cup title.
He left ZPC Kariba at the end of this past season.
The national team had been without a substantive coach since the association dismissed Kalisto Pasuwa.
In the interim, Mhofu and FC Platinum’s Premiership title winning Guvnor Norman Mapeza have each coached the team on a caretaker basis.
However, Zifa were under pressure to appoint a substantive coach and with pressure mounting, the Zifa board resolved to hire Mhofu but this decision has raised the ire of fellow coaches.
The coaches’ gripe is that Mhofu is not a holder of a Caf A licence which Zifa set as the minimum requirement to coach in the local premiership as well as any of the country’s national teams. The coaches allege that Mhofu is not a Caf A holder and as such should not have been given the job.
They also pointed to the fact that Chidzambwa was part of the association’s High Performance Committee whose terms of reference include recommending to the board suitable candidates for national team appointments.
As a result of his position on this committee, the coaches felt that Mhofu should not have been considered for the national team job as it was tantamount to him appointing himself.
In a document thought to have been crafted by a disgruntled coach and has gone viral on social media platforms, the faceless author acknowledges Mhofu’s experience but points out that it does no exclude him from attending courses like all the local coaches.
“Yes, Sunday Chidzambwa is a very experienced coach, but does that exonerate him from attending courses? The authorities have turned a blind eye or they have chosen to ignore it because either they are afraid of Sunday or they just wanted to push the other guys out of football. We are made to believe that NO CAF A NO PSL/NATIONAL TEAM? (sic) but the almighty Sunday is one lucky guy,” the document read.
“Mhofu has 3 league titles with the last one won over a decade if not 2 ago when the Zifa Level 1 was the highest qualification. Yes, during that time he was highly qualified with his Brazilian certificate of attendance,” the author continued.
The document went on to accuse Mhofu and the High Performance Committee of recommending the dismissal of Pasuwa to enable him to be appointed to the job as his replacement.
To an open minded person, however, these concerns come off as the rhetoric of an envious individual who could possibly have been overlooked for the job. While it is possible that Mhofu has no Caf A, his achievements over the years should speak for themselves.
Age in football is nothing but a number as evidenced by the likes of Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce who are still very much in demand in the English Premier League despite being fairly old (70 and 63 years of age respectively).
And while Mhofu is expected to attend courses like every other coach, many will feel that this gripe by this or these disgruntled coaches is nothing but a case of bitter resentment against a more successful peer.—@AllanFoti
