ZIFA’S Normalisation Committee just seem to be struggling to get anything perfect at the troubled football association.
This time it has emerged that ZIFA have not paid the Warriors, who were on duty at the just-ended COSAFA Cup, their winning bonuses, as promised.
Zimbabwe failed to progress to the semi-final of the regional tourney despite registering two wins against Comoros and Zambia in Group B.
The Warriors had finished with the same number of points — six — as Kenya and The Comoros. But it was The Comoros, who advanced to the next round of the tournament via a superior goal difference.
In the end the Warriors slipped into third place after losing their final group game to Keya. It is now 12 days since the Warriors secured a 2-0 win over perennial rivals Zambia but they have nothing to show for their successes.
The latest problem to rock ZIFA comes just days after Normalisation Committee chairman, Lincoln Mutasa had his tenure extended.
Chief executive officer Yvonne Mapika Manwa and her secretariat have not helped matters either, despite FIFA giving them more sweeping powers in the administration of the local game.
Manwa yesterday confirmed that ZIFA were still owing the players but declined to get into the finer details.
She however, said ZIFA were, making plans to pay off the players.
Ironically ZIFA had sent an enlarged 18-member technical team to the COSAFA Cup tourney before FIFA stepped in and ordered that five of them return home as part of measures to stay within the approved budget for the competition
The players, are however, clearly not amused by ZIFA’s failure to pay them.
They told Zimpapers Sports hub that they were only paid their daily allowances “and there has not been communication as to when we will get our bonuses’’.
“We just received our daily allowances and they said they were going to send us our bonuses once we are back in Zimbabwe but they haven’t done anything,” said one player who was part of the Warriors squad in South Africa.
“They have been quiet since our return and we are still hoping that they will fulfil their promises.
“Some people will criticise us as players saying a lot of things about how we failed to invest with the little we were getting from our national team call ups but the reality is this is how we are being treated even at club level.”
Two weeks before the COSAFA Cup in Port Elizabeth, the Warriors played back-to-back World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and South Africa in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.
Those in the World Cup were however, paid their incentives before even kicking a ball and this is despite the fact that they fell to both Lesotho and South Africa.
