JOHANNESBURG The last time that ZIFA employed a foreign coach, they hired a Brazilian named Jose Claudinei Georgini Valinhos who, despite producing very little on internet search pages then, was hailed as the man who discovered and nurtured former Brazilian scoring machine and 1994 FIFA World Cup winner Romario.Hired in January 2008, the Brazilian mentor was fired a year later – his experimental expedition with the Warriors having ended in a pathetic run of one win, three draws and two losses in an otherwise favourable group that also featured Guinea , Kenya and Namibia .
Zimbabwe ended third in a format that sent only the top two sides through to the last qualifying round, but the short-lived romance did not end in Valinhos dismal failure to guide the Warriors to their third ever appearance in the AFCON and a maiden show at the FIFA World Cup, but extended to an embarrassing battle over allowances, which eventually saw the Brazilian dragging ZIFA to world football governing body FIFA.
That battle left the cash-strapped Zimbabwean football authority with a US$60 000 dent on its coffers, after Valinhos won his appeal.
Little experience
When many thought that ZIFA had learnt a lesson from hiring sub-standard foreign coaches on a limited budget and while the rest of the continent is turning to locals for salvation, we have been slapped with yet another little known this time a Belgian called Tom Saintfiet.
Just like Valinhos, Saintfiet has very little experience coaching national teams, a pathetic run of two wins and five losses in seven competitive matches being the record of his two-year stint with the Namibian national team.
The Belgian was in charge of the Namibian side that ended last, behind the Warriors, in the preliminary group stages of the 2010 AFCON and FIFA World Cup qualifiers last year, after securing two wins and four losses.
In that group, the Brave Warriors scored seven goals and conceded 12 in six matches, while in the only match they have played so far in the 2012 AFCON qualifiers, they were thrashed 3-1 by Gambia , automatically raising the ire of that countrys football federation.
Other than Namibia , the 37-year-old Belgian, despite holding a UEFA A Pro Licence obtained 10 years ago, has only coached in small leagues like in the Faroe Islands First league, the Dutch First Division and also worked with Qatars U17 national team.
With such a record, one would have thought that the Belgian is worth neither the US$8 000 net monthly salary and US$2 000 winning bonus he has been promised, nor the fight that has ensued between the Zimbabwean and Zambian football federations over him.
Leadership of fools
Besides the Valinhos salary battle, which was only settled after FIFA had flexed its muscle and deducted it from a grant meant for the Zimbabwean association, ZIFA is still involved in a court battle with the Brazilians successor Sunday Chidzambwa over his outstanding US$67 000, which the embattled association says is US$13 000.
Stretching the wage bill beyond its elastic limits like what is about to happen with Saintfiet — whose questionable dealings with ZIFA when still contarcted to Namibia have already cast doubt over his loyalty — can only vindicate Namibia Football Association (NFA) secretary, Barry Rukoros comments that ZIFA is a leadership of fools over their alleged immoral lure of Saintfiet.
That the coach is already in a fight with ZIFA, accusing the association of having a hand in his deportation can only add to a circus that is likely to follow Zimbabwean football until a more committed leadership is found.
Besides German Reihard Fabisch (now late), Zimbabwe has not had rosy relations with foreign coaches in the past, despite some of them having carried impressive records with their previous employers.
Locals in charge
Ghanaian Ben Kofie (1989), German Rudi Gutendorf (199596), Scottish-born Ian 96Porterfield (1997), Dutch Clemens Westerhof and another Dutch, Wieslav Grabowski (2002) were all expensive flops.
Ironically the only times Zimbabwe appeared in the AFCON 2004 and 2006, it was under the guidance of local coaches, Chidzambwa and Charles Mhlauri respectively, just as locals were in charge on the four occasions when the Warriors won the regional COSAFA tournament in 2000 (Misheck Chidzambwa), 2003 (Sunday Chidzambwa), 2005 (Charles Mhlauri) and 2009 (Sunday Chidzambwa).
Zimbabwe has successful coaches like Mhlauri, a two-time PSL champion with Caps United and Rahman Gumbo who, with two league championships with Highlanders and one each in Malawi and Botswana can lay claim at being Zimbabwe s own Jose Mourinho.
Both can come cheaper than foreign coaches but all that seems to mean little to ZIFA and not even the example of richer neighbours South Africa — who have opted to hire home-grown coaching talent — could entice the Zimbabwean soccer body to follow suit and give a chance to local coaches.
Post published in: Athletics