THE Zifa normalisation committee has edged closer to appointing the Warriors and Mighty Warriors coaches after interviews to fill in the posts kicked off yesterday.
More candidates will be interviewed today as the normalisation committee look to finalise the exercise by tomorrow as time runs out for the teams to start preparations for their respective assignments.
The women’s national team will be involved in the Cosafa Cup, while the men have the African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers as well as the Fifa World Cup qualifiers starting in November.
Normalisation Committee chairperson Lincoln Mutasa yesterday said they had talked to a number of coaches and will continue the interviews today.
“For the senior men’s national team we are looking at five people, while for the women’s team we were considering three candidates. We looked at the initial shortlist and further reduced it after considering some of the qualifications,” Mutasa said.
“The process is ongoing we are trying to move fast, but in some cases we have to approach individuals and then we have to negotiate with their clubs.”
Zifa received dozens of applications after advertising coaching posts for junior national teams for men and women as well as senior national teams’ posts.
Mutasa said Zifa might offer the new coach a year’s contract which runs concurrently with the normalisation committee’s tenure.
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“We are telling these guys that we can only offer a contract that runs concurrently with the normalisation committee’s tenure. Look we don’t want to impose a coach on the new board, but all the same we are trying to get a good coach who can continue even after the new board is in place.”
The Warriors have been without a coach since Norman Mapeza took the Warriors to the Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2021.
Zimbabwe was later banned by Fifa over government interference. The suspension was lifted this year and a normalisation committee was appointed to run the sport for a year before a new board can be elected.
The Warriors have tough World Cup qualifiers coming up in November as they return from international wilderness where they will play Rwanda away from home before they host Nigeria in group encounters.
Zimbabwe are in the same group as Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Rwanda and Lesotho and only the top team at the end of the round robin qualifiers will automatically land a ticket to the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026.
Zimbabwe do not have a Caf approved stadium to host the Nigeria match at the moment and Zifa chose to stage the match in Francistown, Botswana having also considered South Africa.
With the next Fifa international window coming next month, the coach will have little time to assess his players before the World Cup qualifiers, if Zifa fail to organise friendly matches during that period.
The new coach’s first mission will be to guide the locally-based Warriors in the Chan tournament qualifiers against yet to be named opponents.
