This has been revealed by Zifa Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Mashingaidze who says a substantive coach of the Warriors is to be appointed before the Warriors engage Zambia in an international friendly on August 8.
At the moment, the Warriors are under the guidance of caretaker coach Rahman Gumbo who took over from Norman Mapeza who was suspended after he was named in the Asiagate match fixing scandal.
Gumbo has been in charge since Zimbabwe played Burundi in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in February and has also taken charge of the Warriors in their two 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Guinean and Mozambique.
Although Gumbo has taken care of the Warriors since February, the former FC Platinum coach does not have a contract with the football controlling body.
Mashingaidze refused to discuss Gumbo’s position but said they have to make a decision now in order to give whoever will get the job a sense of job security and enough time with the Warriors starting with the match against Zambia.
However, word doing rounds within the football family is that Zifa want a foreign coach and are targeting Caps United’s Northern Ireland coach Sean Connor.
Ironically, Connor himself has been at the centre of a storm at the Green Machine where the team’s fans are not happy with their team’s performance.
In 2010, Zifa appointed Belgian Tom Saintfiet as Warriors coach but Saintfiet did not take up the position after he was not issued with a work permit by the Department of Immigration and was deported after working for the Warriors for only one day.
The Warriors have an Africa Cup of Nations final qualifying round tie against Angola, the first leg of which is in Harare in September before the deciding match in Luanda in October.
Before that and after the Zambia match on August 8, the Warriors are scheduled to take part in a four team tournament in Uganda where they will also play Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Post published in: Football