eBusiness Weekly
Tadious Manyepo
The Warriors have lost out on a major pay-day after they failed to advance to the knock-out stages of the Africa Cup of Nations currently underway in Cameroon, Business Weekly Sport can reveal.
Zimbabwe became the first team to be eliminated from the biannual tournament after losing their first two group games against Senegal and Malawi.
Although they posted a consolation win in their last tie in the pool against Guinea on Tuesday evening, it was too little too late and could not save them.
The players have started returning back in the country in small batches owing to shortage of flights in Cameroon.
This is a tournament the Warriors were expected to do well given the windfall they received from the Government through the Sports and Recreation Commission.
With the Zimbabwe Football Association board under suspension, the SRC ran around to make sure the football governing body’s secretariat had the means to send and look after the team at the AFCON.
So motivated were the players after they were paid their appearance fees which Business Weekly Sport understands was at least US$5 000 per player per game.
And the appearance fee was set to be doubled had the Warriors made it to the next round.
Acting SRC director General Sebastian Garikai, revealed the commission had already put together resources towards paying the players.
“As the SRC we happy the players were fully focused on their game. We made sure we paid them their money before they even played their second match against Malawi,” said Garikai.
“What we didn’t want was to see the players minds being disturbed because they would be thinking how they would get their dues.
“Unfortunately the team could not make it to the next stage of the tournament. We understand sport is like that. I think the team was also unlucky given how they played against both Senegal and Malawi.
“We were meant to increase the payments per player had the team managed to progress to the last 16.
“But, we are still behind them, the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers are coming and we still back them.
“I would like to applaud the team for winning the last game against Guinea. This marked our first win at the Africa Cup of Nations since a 2-1 victory over Ghana in 2006. We are very happy with that.”
Meanwhile the nation is awaiting to see whether coach Norman Mapeza will retain the post and when as is widely believed, captain Knowledge Musona will announce his retirement from international football.
