The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has vowed to come hard on clubs that withdrew their players from the Mighty Warriors camp ahead of the aborted second-leg of the second round Olympic qualifier against Zambia at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Three clubs namely Blue Swallows, Correctional Queens, Black Rhinos and Herentals, withdrew about 12 players after they reportedly complained about their welfare.
ZIFA now claims that there was a hidden hand in the whole fiasco. The Association spokesperson, Xolisani Gwesela said:
We paid the Mighty Warriors US$150 each before they left for Zambia.
They were even paid $2 000 winning bonuses for a game that they lost 5-0.
For the return leg, they had been paid more than half of what was due to them. Tell me, who is in breach of contract?
It’s surprising that males invaded the team’s camping base at midnight and pulled the girls out of camp claiming to have been instructed by their bosses to pull out players from camp.
We will be invoking Fifa, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and Zifa statutes to deal with the clubs and individuals who instigated the chaos.
Meanwhile, ZIFA slashed allowances paid to national team players after the 2019 AFCON tournament.
According to The Herald, players were paid US$5 000 in appearance fees at the AFCON finals but the figure has been reduced to ZWL$200.00.