The Sunday Mail
Sports Editor
ZIFA have leapt to the defence of coach Zdravko “Loga’’ Logarusic after the Zimbabwe gaffer hastily substituted versatile defender Qadir Amini, just three minutes into their final African Nations Championship (Chan) Group A match against Mali in Doula, Cameroon, on Sunday night.
The Warriors fell 1-0 to the Eagles to complete a winless and a pointless run at the tournament, the worst campaign by any of the country’s senior men’s squads at a regional or continental tourney.
But it was Loga’s decision to haul Amini off when the game was only three minutes old, that hogged the limelight with many Zimbabweans who were following the game via live streaming, bemused on what had inspired the Croat’s decision as they had not seen the Ngezi Platinum Stars veteran receive any knock.
That shock move sparked a barrage of criticism especially on social media after it emerged that the move to take Amini off and replace him with Ian Nekati had been ordered from Harare by Zifa president, Felton Kamambo, via a text message to the Warriors technical bench in Cameroon.
Zifa on Monday responded by issuing a statement “to explain the circumstances’’ that led to Loga being forced to make the shock substitution.
The association’s communications and competitions manager, Xolisani Gwesela, insisted that their directive to the coach to make the change did not amount to undue interference in technical matters but “had been taken in the interests of the both the player and the game’’.
Gwesela claimed that Amini has heart problems and Zifa took the move as a precautionary measure to protect the former Dynamos and FC Platinum player.
“The Zimbabwe Football Association has noted media inquiries regarding the substitution of Qadr Amini in the third minute of Zimbabwe’s match against Mali at the African Nations Championship (Chan) finals in Doula, Cameroon on Sunday. Zifa would like to categorically state that in line with CAF’s medical guidelines, there was a test that we were supposed to conduct on all players who had recently recovered from Covid-19 called Cardiac MRI test.
“Our medical team checked among radiology centres in the country and there was none in Zimbabwe conducting such a test. Zifa wrote to CAF to arrange and facilitate that the affected Chan players be tested in Cameroon.
“All the affected players were tested upon arrival in Yaoundé and the board was notified prior to the commencement of the tournament that the player was not fit to play due to heart complications. A decision was made not to field the player until the recovery of the player and subsequent retests.
“The board was shocked to see the player in the starting line-up without the player having undergone another test. The technical and medical teams were engaged and could not give a convincing explanation on why the player was included.
“The board then made a decision to order the technical team not to use the player until a retest had been conducted. The decision was made in the interest of the player’s health. The board played its oversight role to protect the player from potential permanent harm that may have included death as well as to safeguard the reputation of the game of football.
“The insinuations in some media platforms that such was interference with team selection, therefore, has no basis. The Zifa board has set a commission of inquiry made up of experts to understand what exactly took place and whether it was proper to field the player. Zifa urges the public and media to respect the privacy of the health status of the player and we wish the player a quick recovery,’’ Gwesela said.
The bizarre incident in the final group was the latest episode to a farcical campaign for the Warriors in which they not only embarrassed themselves but the nation after Zifa dismally failed to plan for the tournament before sending a clueless Loga and his men on the mission to Cameroon.
