"Baltemar Brito Selected Warriors Squad For World Cup Qualifiers In June 2024"
Disagreements between the ZIFA Normalisation Committee and the FIFA head of development programmes for Africa, Solomon Mudege, resulted in the delay in the appointment of the coach of the national senior men’s football team, the Warriors, and hampered the return of Baltemar Brito, reported The Sunday Mail.
Mudenge, working with FIFA Forward manager Kudzi Chitima and ZIFA chief executive officer Yvonne Mapika Manwa, had reportedly given Brito the job verbally.
They asked the Brazilian to select his players for the two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and South Africa on 7 and 11 June, respectively.
However, ZIFA Normalisation Committee chairperson Lincoln Mutasa and his executive allegedly refused to process Brito’s papers after he criticised how they handled the previous 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Nigeria in Butare, Rwanda, in November 2023.
The Sunday Mail reported sources as saying Mudege, Manwa and Chitima struggled to convince Mutasa and his executive to rehire Brito after he criticised ZIFA following the Warriors’ back-to-back draws against Rwanda and Nigeria. Said the source:
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There was a lot of optimism from FIFA’s Mudege and Chitima that the reappointment of Brito would sail through, hence he was tasked with selecting the players with the help of Chitima.
But when the matter was brought to the Normalisation Committee, they stood their ground and rejected Brito’s re-engagement as he had already fallen out with the committee after the Rwanda trip.
It was then that an initial decision to hire Joey Antipas was made, but the Chicken Inn coach does not have a CAF A Licence badge and when the Normalisation Committee put Lloyd Chitembwe’s name forward, it was rejected by the FIFA guys.
Chitembwe also has his challenges of being blacklisted from entering South Africa, so, in the end, a compromise was reached to settle for the three coaches who had been identified as Chitembwe’s assistants, who are Jairos, Chiragwi and Chaminuka.
Another long meeting was held by the Normalisation Committee to decide on the coaches to preside over the upcoming matches and during that meeting, the chairman, Mutasa, insisted that Mhofu (Sunday Chidzambwa) should be in the setup as technical adviser because he rates him highly.
On Friday, Mutasa announced the appointment of Jairos Tapera as Warriors interim coach, with Takesure Chiragwi and Saul Chaminuka, as assistant coaches for the two World Cup qualifiers.
Former Warriors Head Coach, Sunday Chidzambga, was appointed the Warriors’ Technical Director.
Tapera became the fourth interim coach to take charge of the Warriors since the appointment of the ZIFA Normalisation Committee on 11 June 2023. The others are Sunday Chidzambwa, Brito and Norman Mapeza.
The Sunday Mail also heard that the ZIFA NC members are a divided lot but they have one thing in common: “They don’t like those who criticise them.” Said the source:
Brito was dropped as a possible choice for the coaching for reasons aligned with criticism of the establishment as well.
But I can tell you that Brito was the favourite for the job and he was even seconded to pick the squad he wanted to work with. So, he, together with Kudzi Chitima, was responsible for selecting and inviting the players.
This interim technical team to lead the squad will have no say on which players to use since they have already been selected, especially for the World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and South Africa.
Maybe they will have a say, but not much, for the players they will use in the COSAFA tournament, which they will also take charge of.
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