ZIFA and Pagels, a match made in “hell”?

Forget the “Asiagate” that ZIFA chairman Cuthbert Dube has used as his shield each time the senior national team has betrayed the nation and the “rebuilding” excuse that Klaus Dieter Pagels has always thrown at us – ZIFA and Pagels are a match made in “hell”.

That the national team is still under the guidance of a caretaker coach months after Rahman Gumbo was sacked and that ZIFA can still get away with the horrendous travel arrangements that saw the Warriors miss six of their key players in the away fixture just shows that Zimbabwean soccer is still far from social soccer status.

The Warriors go into their last game against Mozambique at home not only anchoring Group G with a single point, but also with the sorry history of not having lost all the possible six points they contested for in Harare. They lost to both visitors – Guinea and Mozambique – going into the last tie. Mozambique, considered to be minnows when the qualifiers began, have a point more than the Warriors, which also put them a step ahead of the local pretenders.

Teams do lose, sometimes heavily and it is acceptable, but not when that losing streak becomes regular and comes against not-so-powerful teams like Egypt, Guinea and Angola.

Calls have been coming, and coming fast, for ZIFA bosses to own up to their failure and leave new heads to plan the future of Zimbabwean football, yet against all logic, Dube still has the audacity to contest for another term in office.

Arguably, Dube’s term of office has been the worst in years by a ZIFA chairman. Even Leo Mugabe in his days saw Zimbabwe create the famous “Dream Team” memories in which such teams like Cameroon, Egypt and Guinea came to Harare and returned empty-handed, but thanks to “Mr Asiagate”, Guinea got their only full set of points in the first World Cup Qualifying round against whipping boys, Zimbabwe, whom they beat home and away.

Just as we warned last year, Dube’s “Asiagate” fight has, instead of making him hero, made him a villain. Other than alienating players and sapping the Warriors of their much-needed venom, it achieved nothing else. Most of the banned players are still earning big in foreign leagues while the bulk of those supposedly banned quit the game long before Dube could pronounce the “A” of his favourite Asiagate term.

Then came the arrogance of the “if you want them in the national team select them into yours” Pagels, who apparently chooses players because they are closer to him in Harare. That the German-born coach would leave out such stars Tapuwa Kapini, Esrom Nyandoro and Cuthbert Malajila from the Warriors’ qualifiers also shows how bad he is for the national team.

Forget about his claims of rebuilding. So are Egypt, yet they have still managed to get all six points against the Warriors in two matches. A rebuilding team does not lose all its games, but wins and draws others.

Zimbabwe is definitely a better team without the current ZIFA administration and Pagels and the sooner something is done about this, the better.