CAF 'Relieved' After Warriors' AFCON Elimination
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is relieved that Zimbabwe has been eliminated from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, a report suggests.
This follows Zimbabweans players’ tendency to mutiny against the local soccer mother body, ZIFA over allowances.
The Herald claims that its sources revealed that there was no guarantee that had Zimbabwe reached the knockout stages of the tournament, players were not going to threaten to boycott the tournament. Sources to The Herald said:
… there was a concern that should the Zimbabwe team qualify for the next round, the issues over pay would dominate because, from what we heard, there was a contract that was signed between the players and the Zimbabwe FA officials where the players would be paid specific amounts game by game.
Given the contracts contained clauses, we are told, that provided for payment just for appearance in a match, this would have meant that every extra game would need some extra payments.
The money that the Zimbabwe FA would have received, that is about an extra US$175 000 if the team had made the Round of 16, would not have been enough to guarantee that everything would be paid without the case of the protests emerging again in their camp.
‘No one will say it publicly but there is a sense that the elimination of the Zimbabwe national team is being welcomed by some people among the organisers, and even the CAF leadership, because of the issues that have been happening here.
Zimbabwe exited the tournament on Sunday night in ignominy following a 4-0 loss to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
