The Sunday Mail
Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE Football Association (ZIFA)’s technical director Wilson Mutekede has broken his silence on the contentious issue of local coaches’ certification, arguing that FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body, did not ban Zimbabweans from acquiring football knowledge when they suspended the country from all international football activities.
In a deeply polarised and toxic domestic football environment, Mutekede has largely been made the scapegoat by some coaches, ostensibly for not creating the platform for them to secure Confederation of African Football (CAF) coaching licences, particularly the A licence badge, which enables one to sit on the technical bench of a Premier Soccer League (PSL) club.
The PSL started barring unlicensed coaches from the dugout towards the end of last season.
Coaches such as Joey Antipas, Arthur Tutani and Joel Luphahla have been affected as a result.
ZIFA also stand accused of not making provision for CAF courses to resume.
Mutekede, however, revealed that all the Premiership coaches with CAF A badges will be back in class this week for a refresher course ahead of the start of the top-flight season.
The elite league’s goalkeeper coaches, who included former Warriors number one Energy Murambadoro (Chicken Inn) and Dynamos’ Britto Gwere, have since undergone a rigorous weeklong course in the capital.
From tomorrow, it will be the turn of coaches such as reigning Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Coach of the Year Norman Mapeza, CAPS United’s Lloyd Chitembwe, Herbert Maruwa (Dynamos), Takesure Chiragwi (Ngezi Platinum Stars) and Jairos Tapera (Manica Diamonds).
The courses are reportedly in line with a convention between CAF and their member associations, including ZIFA.
“The determination by some heartless elements to destroy and bury the fibre of the remains of our domestic game is appalling,” Mutekede told The Sunday Mail Sport.
“At a time when the normal expectation was to get together for the sake of saving the beautiful game, which does not only serve as entertainment but a source of employment for about 13 000 families, we are finding ourselves grappling with the sad reality of witnessing an unquenchable thirst for destruction by egoistic and selfish individuals.”
The former Shabanie Mine and Twalumba FC coach insists that Zimbabwe’s suspension by FIFA did not bar any coaches, administrators or referees from acquiring knowledge or undertaking capacity-building exercises.
“Some have gone to the extent of fighting the tenets of club licensing by campaigning against the requirement of having properly qualified technical structures. Zimbabwe may be suspended from playing international football, but surely not suspended from knowledge acquisition or thinking.”
He said Zimbabwe has one of the leading football associations in coach development as it had raked up four CAF A courses by 2017.
Suspension of courses in the same year, he added, derailed the exercise.
“The lifting of the CAF coach education programmes in 2019 was short-lived as the Covid-19 pandemic stalled everything from March 2020 up to August 2021,’’ he said.
Zimbabwe’s suspension by FIFA has similarly affected programmes as funding from the world soccer body had been frozen.
Mutekede said some coaches thought the freezing of funds from FIFA and CAF meant they could not continue with their education and capacity-building programmes.
“The suspension by FIFA in November 2021 then followed and it was a sad development that further affected the already ailing game,” he said.
“While under suspension, any normal football mind would have thought we were going to focus all our energies on revamping our football structures from grassroots up to elite levels, but, alas, some people were and are still determined to see everything paralysed and come to a standstill.”
There was need, he said, to use this period to try and address weaknesses and challenges that Government, through the Sports and Recreation Commission, noted.
“Efforts by the secretariat to continue revamping the game through conducting administrative and coach education programmes suffered a serious setback when the same elements made sure the existing financial resources from the previous financial year were frozen so that all programmes would be stalled . . .”
Mutekede said some individuals were also decampaigning the planned coach education programmes by alleging that they were fake, null and void since the country was under suspension.
“CAF have not stopped domestic training programmes nor have they suspended licence renewal through refresher courses as instructed in Article 32 of the CAF convention,” he added.
“It is a pity that some of the so-called top coaches are also against refresher courses to the extent of mobilising other coaches to boycott these capacity-building programmes. This . . . is detrimental to the national development of the game and will severely expose the country at readmission.
“A closer look at the excelling elite football managers in the world shows individuals who have invested a lot into personal development and capacity-building . . . This edu-phobia by some of our highly regarded technical elements is frightening.”
