Warriors date Botswana as Zifa battles to appoint ...

Warriors date Botswana as Zifa battles to appoint substantive coach

Zim Now Writer

The Zimbabwe senior men’s national team is set to take on the Zebras of Botswana as part of the neighbouring country’s 57th Independence celebrations on September 30 in Gaborone.

However, with the 2024 African Nations Championship qualifiers set to kick off a week before that match, the Warriors are still without a substantive coach.

Sunday Chidzambwa, who presided over the 5-4 victory over Namibia in the Inauguration Cup, was just in charge for that one match.

The Zifa Normalisation Committee, which was appointed close to two months ago and is led by former Dynamos chairman, Lincoln Mutasa has, however, urged the nation not to panic.

“We flighted adverts and we are down a shortlist of ten coaches and interviews will start next week. We hope to have the right candidate by the end of next week, or within the next two weeks latest. We have been invited to Botswana for the Independence Cup and we want the new coach to use that match to assess some of the players and be ready for the next Fifa window which will be in October,” said Mutasa.

The Warriors are also scheduled to host Nigeria in November in a 2026 Fifa World Cup Qualifier, but have no match venue to host the encounter.

“We have written to CAF. We would want to play at home in front of our fans, that is the ideal scenario, but if that does not succeed, we have already engaged our neighbours and we have agreements in place,” said Mutasa.

The Zifa Normalisation Committee is now in its final stage of setting up a technical committee that will interview prospective national team coaches with the assistance of a human resources firm.