Former Warriors goalkeeper, Tapuwa Kapini has blamed the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) for the national football team’s humiliation at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The Warriors failed to win a single match, drawing one and losing two with a combined 5-0 aggregate loss. They managed to score a single goal in three matches.
The final game at the tournament was a 4-0 loss to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) played after the players had boycotted training and threatened to abandon the tournament due to nonpayment of allowances.
The players insisted that ZIFA pays all their outstanding allowances before the match.
Speaking on Front Runner Sports TV, Kapini posited that ZIFA should have been prepared for the tournament. He said:
This thing of Zifa not playing the players is bringing the issue that the players don’t want to perform. They want to perform and if everything is in order, I think the team would do well.
If you look at the teams that had everything in order, they did well. The other sides who faced money issues with their associations – Uganda, for example, refused to train and lost their match (against Senegal).
Kapini did not have kind words for Warriors first-choice goalkeeper, George Chigova who failed to play against DRC due to a hamstring injury.
Chigova was replaced by third-choice keeper Elvis Chipezeze after the second choice, Edmore Sibanda was also injured. Said Kapini:
There are some games I play while injured because I don’t want to bring pressure to these boys.
I think it was unnecessary for Chigova to pull out and give Chipezeze a sudden chance to play in the match. I sympathize with Elvis, it’s part of the game.
Kapini currently plays at South African side Highlands Park FC where he is the club captain.