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Grace Chingoma

Harare Bureau

THE Mighty Warriors yesterday continued boycotting training in protest over unpaid allowances and bonuses which have amounted up to $3,500 per player.

They spent the large part of the day camped at Zifa House where they were hoping to be addressed by Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa.

While the players and the team manager, Charity Munemo, were camped at 53 Livingstone, Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze and the entire technical team were locked in a meeting at the Zifa Village which went on for three hours as they tried to reach a common position.

The team boycotted training on Wednesday to protest for their outstanding bonuses accruing from the match against Cameroon in October last year which saw them qualifying for the Olympic Games.

The players were also protesting over unpaid allowances and winning bonuses for last weekend’s match against Tanzania in Dar-es-Salaam.

Even though Mashingaidze emerged from that lengthy meeting to declare that the team was expected to resume training yesterday afternoon, the players have vowed that they will only resume training after receiving part of the money.

“We did communicate with the technical team that we owe the team and the technical team but they should be able continue with the training and allow the administrators to do their job in terms of looking for resources.

“We have left it to the technical team to ensure that training resumes this afternoon,” said Mashingaidze.

He said the Warriors, who also have an upcoming match against Swaziland during the Easter weekend, were also owed by the Association.

“The bottom line is that as an Association, yes, we owe all our national teams their allowances and it’s a situation obtaining at Zifa.

The institution has financial constraints and naturally the coming in of a new board, they are now seized with ensuring that the resources are found for all our national teams, general operations and development programmes.

“And communications has been made in respect of commitment to service whatever we owe the national teams.

“The board is hundred percent seized with that and we have also communicated that to our national teams that once we get issues in motion, payment should be able to be made available to our teams.

“We have left it in the hands of the technical team to ensure that they get their ducks in one row.

“The board is seized with looking for resources ahead of the Tanzania fixture, which is crucial, and we are also seized with looking for resources for the Swaziland fixture, which is crucial, remember it is back-to-back fixture on the 25 and 28 so this is the kind of task ahead of us.”