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Khama Billiat

THE Warriors’ camp to begin preparations for the 2017 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) got off to a false start due to logistical challenges. How many times have we heard this before?

Why are Zimbabwe national teams’ preparations for every international event always mired by serious management inadequacies and poor planning? It’s not like we only knew on Christmas Day that our Warriors had to go into camp for the Afcon, which starts on January 14 in Gabon.

In fact, the Warriors qualified for the continental football showcase with one game to spare after thrashing Malawi 3-0 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare in June, and we would have expected preparations for the tournament to start in earnest thereafter.

That was six months ago and it’s unacceptable to wake up to a screaming headline that “Challenges creep in as Warriors training camp is aborted” just 17 days before the tournament proper kicks off.

Yes, the locally based Warriors were in Côte d’Ivoire for a friendly as part of “preparations” for the Afcon, but what’s shocking is that the foreign-based players were asked to report for camp on Boxing Day, yet no one knew where they would camp.

Most players turned up as required, but were turned away as “Zifa officials ran around” looking for where to accommodate them. If there was no place to accommodate the players, why were they asked to report for camp in the first place? Zifa knew that its village in Mt Hampden is inhabitable and to summon professional players and then start running around looking for accommodation after their arrival shows the state of confusion enveloping the national association.

This alone has set alarm bells ringing and even Zifa’s move to later secure accommodation for the players at a Harare hotel is little consolation to the country’s football lovers. Headless chickens are associated with running around aimlessly and we challenge Zifa not to persist in competing for such embarrassment. Zifa had six months to start preparations and for officials to be running around on Boxing Day to secure a camping venue for the Warriors is an insult to the players and fans.

The Zifa board has failed to rise to the occasion and these inadequacies could cost the Warriors a respectable finish at the Afcon finals.

Preparations are key and we can’t understand why Zifa continues to play hide-and-seek with just less than three weeks left. We need to get the basics right to get the best out of our boys.

When is Zifa going to meet standard expectations ahead of a major tournament? We have deceived ourselves that we will go far in the 2017 Afcon based on the strength of our performances in the qualifiers. But the finals are a whole different ball game, as approach plays a big role in determining the outcome.

Our approach has been lackadaisical and it’s almost as if we are planning for the Warriors to fail at the Afcon. We should be quick to remind Zifa that even when the Warriors did well in the qualifiers, it mostly had to do with individual players’ determination because their preparations for every game have mostly been shoddy.

Who can forget the Warriors’ bus ride to Malawi during the qualifiers? What makes Zifa think the Warriors will give us the right results when it is not doing the right thing in preparing them for the tournament? Winning matches at the Afcon requires proper scripting, planning and disciplined execution of planned programmes, and not this running around Zifa is subjecting the players to.

We should be working on how to execute our plans at the finals and not running around. We have the quality to beat any team on the continent, but the Zifa factor is what tends to work against the Warriors.