“Success is a process not an event,” said Ritchie Norton in a quote that has become a cliche for many but remains a powerful statement that basically defines the road towards success.
It was a breathe of fresh air, chaffing for every genuine soccer supporter in the country when news broke out that the ZIFA normalisation committee had succeed in securing the national team, our warriors a berth at a four team tournament featuring neighbours Malawi, Zambia and Kenya from East Africa. Phew,at long last the warriors are going to utilise FIFA international match dates where clubs are mandated to release our foreign legion.
The tournament accords the Warriors a chance to effectively prepare for a busy year as we continue with our quest to qualify for the 2026 World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations 2025 qualifiers starting in June . Finally the team which was hastly assembled for last qualifying games against Rwanda and Nigeria, has a chance to try out different combinations and gel ahead of crucial matches.
That excitement is dissipating as we have one problem, the team has no coach! As I write this piece , the four team tourney is seven days away and we are still in the dark as to who will take charge of the team. We don’t know who among the foreign based contingent will be coming in bearing in mind host Malawi have already announced their team.
Why has it become normal in our football that we have a last minute rash to assembe a team? What template is the normalisation committee using in it’s decision making? Football success requires investment in proper planning and religious following of the plan to it’s logical conclusion. Last minute appointment of a coach and huffed assembling of the team smacks of planning to fail which is a paradox for people who were appointed to ‘normalise’ an association blighted by challenges of poor governance and planning.
The normalisation committee is supposed to bring back sanity to our football, a new way of doing things and a template for the new substantive ZIFA committee that will come to replace it at the end of it’s tenure.
Zimbabweans love the beautiful game , and it is by no conicidence that soccer is the leading sport in the country by numbers. Baltemar Brito , the last Warriors coach was released from his post but the committee never supported him well in the games he was in charge. Reports of players having to bring their own kits because the association cannot provide are disheartening. It has been three months since Brito was released ,why has it taking so long to find an alternative? Surely the committee knows it’s financial limitations, what it can and cannot do and a coach within their means should have been named long back.By now we should have been hearing of the names of players the coach wants to take to the four team tournament in preparation of key games ahead.