ZIFA fires Mhlauri and dissolves national teams coaching departments

By Tichaona Sibanda
20 June 2007

The Zimbabwe Football Association on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of firing the senior national team coach and dissolving the coaching departments of all its national teams.

This follows a string of poor results, across the board. Zifa chairman Wellington Nyatanga has been under tremendous pressure from fans and other board members to get rid of Charles Mhlauri after the Warriors failed to qualify for next year’s Nations Cup.

Henrietta Rushwaya, Zifa’s acting chief executive, told Newsreel on Wednesday that they felt compelled as an association to act because of the poor results.

‘We are now casting our nets wide looking for a new coach to take over the national team job. Zimbabwe is a soccer loving nation and with the way things were going it was in the best interests of everyone to restructure the coaching and technical departments,’ Rushwaya said.

In firing Mhlauri, Zifa also dissolved the entire Warriors technical department, which includes assistant coach Methembe Ndlovu, goalkeepers coach Emmanuel Nyahuma, team manager Ernest Sibanda, assistant manager and team liaison Sharrif Mussa, team doctor Edward Chagonda and physiotherapist Lloyd Maungwa.

Also shown the exit door were the Mighty Warriors coach Rosemary Mugadza, whose team was knocked out of the qualifiers for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. The association’s acting chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya confirmed Zifa had also relieved Misheck Chidzambwa as coach of the Under-23 squad. National Under-20 coach Sammy Mavhenyengwa was also a victim of the purge and so was Rodwell Dhlakama the Under-17 mentor. The country’s youth teams have also been performing poorly.

Rushwaya said some of those relieved on Tuesday might actually bounce back, but in different capacities. She added that their restructuring exercise should be done by October to give time for new personnel to plan for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.