WARRIORS skipper Knowledge Musona has revealed that lies by the ZIFA board and the lack of trust in the football leadership were at the root of the problems that bedevilled the Zimbabwe national football team camp at the AFCON tournament in Egypt two years ago.
The 31-year-old skipper disclosed this in his submissions to the Sports and Recreation Commission, who had wanted to conduct investigations into how the Zimbabwe team hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons during the trip of shame.
However, the ZIFA leadership, which also faced allegations of financial misappropriation, have been trying to scuttle investigations and have not made their own submissions two years on, despite continued requests from the national sports regulator.
Musona said players had lost trust in the football leadership who always negotiated in bad faith before and during the tournament. The Warriors almost threw a damper on the tournament when they threatened to boycott the opening match against hosts Egypt, leading to the intervention of the CAF officials.
“We started having problems when we found out that our money for the first match, which according to the agreement, should be paid in full before the match, was not paid as agreed.
“We started having meetings, at which meetings, conflicting statements were said and that was on a Thursday, some to the effect that CAF money which was supposed to be used to pay us had not been paid.
“But another ZIFA official confirmed that the money from CAF had indeed been paid, meaning there was money to pay us, yet we remained unpaid on the eve of the opening match.
“This caused a standoff that resulted in threats to boycott the opener until the money was paid. But even then we were paid just USD7200 which we considered that it covered the first game.
“Even CAF leadership came that night before the game and told us they are surprised with our financial problems and threats of boycott yet ZIFA was paid some money by CAF.
“Mr Amaju Pinnick of Nigeria and Antony Baffoe of CAF secretariat encouraged us to play the match. They said NFF had paid for everything for Zimbabwe coming to Egypt (after hosting the Warriors for a pre-tournament friendly match in Nigeria).
“We needed to have been focusing ahead of matches but we were always bogged down in meetings with ZIFA officials over money,” said Musona.
The Warriors performed badly at the tournament and finished bottom in their group after suffering losses to Egypt and DR Congo and drawing with Uganda.
Apart from the money that ZIFA had received from CAF to take care of the tournament expenses, Government and the corporate sector had also chipped in via the fund-raising initiative that was headed by Minister Kazembe Kazembe.
However, the money generated from the fund-raising activities was not specifically for player allowances but for other expenses in the camp.
The players and ZIFA agreed on US$5 000 appearance fees for each game. Musona, who was the go-between linking the layers and the leadership, said the false promises by ZIFA took a toll on him.
ZIFA had lied that they had an agreement with the fund-raising committee to pay part of the fees while the committee would take charge of the larger part. Some of the meetings had to run the whole night into the early hours the next day.
“As captain I found that draining but the minister Kazembe Kazembe came and addressed us explaining in front of everyone that they did not have any agreement with ZIFA to pay a certain amount but that they had an obligation as in their terms of reference to assist players financially with available resources. Yet, before that ZIFA had told us that the fundraising committee will be paying US$3 500 of the US$5 000 appearance fee.
“That again further caused worry in camp because we noticed we were being told lies. In short all that we agreed on was partially paid with the greater component of that payment coming from the Fundraising Committee.” ONLINE
