The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sports Correspondent
RETIRED Highlanders centre-half, Douglas “British” Mloyi thinks Zimbabwe should never have bothered with traveling to Cameroon for the Africa Cup of Nations Finals.
Speaking on the sidelines of his appearance on the Sunday News’ online show, 15 Minutes with Simba, “British” was concerned that given the Fifa threat to ban Zimbabwe from the international football family after the Zifa board was suspended by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).
Mloyi said his biggest fear is that the current state of affairs poses a danger to the players’ state of mind.
“As a former player, I am not sure sending the Warriors to Afcon was such a good idea.
Their nerves are not the best at the moment because they don’t know if they will be allowed to play.
And this is the worst feeling for someone you expect to deliver,” said Mloyi.
He also touched on the confusion around Zimbabwe’s participation at the Finals saying it was destroying the players’ morale.
He added that in the event that Zimbabwe is barred from participating at the Finals, it would be a negative for the players who will have lost an opportunity to be seen by international scouts at an international event.
British also feels local-based players may not be in the right frame of mind or physical ability to compete at this level.
“For almost two years, local players have been able to play football regularly.
They were mostly playing money games and this was unavoidable.
But because of this, they are not at a level to compete with the likes of Sadio Mane, Mo Salah, and others like that,” British told 15 Minutes with Simba.
The retired Bosso legend said he was convinced that the Warriors wouldn’t get very far at the finals.
“I am sorry to say this but I don’t think we’ll make it in Cameroon. From my experience, there has been very little in the way of proper preparations and I don’t think we’ll make it.
We should have stayed home. How will the team play when we had such a short camp? How will the coach be able to put together winning combinations?” he questioned.
“It will be a miracle if we get through to the next round.” @RealSimbaJemwa
