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Callisto Pasuwa

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
CALLISTO PASUWA’S turbulent stint as the Warriors and Young Warriors coach will come to an abrupt end tomorrow night when he performs his final assignment for the two national teams that have been under his guidance for a year. The coach, who did not report for duty on Tuesday when the Young Warriors started their CAF Under-23 Championships qualifier against South Africa because of a fallout with ZIFA, has now decided to take charge of that big match in Pietermaritzburg tomorrow night.

However, his manager Gibson Mahachi told The Herald yesterday that it will be Pasuwa’s final assignment with the national teams, irrespective of the result in South Africa, which could hand the Young Warriors a ticket to the CAF Under-23 Championship finals in Senegal.

Mahachi said they decided yesterday that Pasuwa should, for the sake of the nation, take charge of tomorrow’s key CAF Under-23 Championship qualifier and after that game bring to an end his relationship with ZIFA.

This means Pasuwa will not be in charge of the remainder of the Warriors’ 2017 Nations Cup campaign, which started with a bang after he guided his men to a 2-1 win over Malawi in Blantyre, a result made even more impressive by the chaos that marred preparations for that tie.

The coach will also not guide the Young Warriors when they plunge into battle in the Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo from September 4-19, a ticket they earned by eliminating continental football giants Cameroon.

Pasuwa is yet to lose a competitive game since being handed the dual role of coaching the Warriors and Young Warriors and his impressive spell has revived the romantic attachment between the two teams and their fans amid surging expectations that this journey could turn out to be a special and fruitful one.

But all those dreams have now been shattered after Pasuwa’s manager revealed yesterday that the coach will terminate his relationship with ZIFA.

“We have decided that he goes with the team to South Africa for the sake of the nation that has supported him during this difficult period when he has been working with the national teams,” Mahachi said.

“But that will be his last game in charge because after that match he will step down from his role as the coach of the senior and Under-23 national teams because we feel he cannot continue working under such harsh conditions where he is not being paid by his employer and they seem not to care about his welfare at all.

“He has tried his best in very difficult circumstances, but we feel that his efforts are not being appreciated by those who employed him and all that they have been doing is give him promises that are never fulfilled which is very, very unfair.

“We have come to a point where we feel that it will be in the best interest of the coach, his family and his career that he steps down from the job that he has been doing with the national teams and he begins to weigh up other options that have been coming his way.

“Right now there are a number of local clubs that are interested in his services and once he has stepped down from his roles with the national teams we will be able to weigh up the options and see where he goes from here.

“It’s sad that things have come to this, but it’s been a very difficult time for him and his family; working all this time without being paid, being promised again and again that something will be given to him, but nothing coming his way and you have to feel for him and his family who expect him to provide what fathers are expected to deliver.”

Mahachi said what was even depressing was that all the time they were the ones who ended up looking for the ZIFA officials and in some occasions they were simply ignored.

“You would expect that they would be the ones who would come to explain that because of challenges they might be facing they can’t deliver on their promises, but all that we have been getting is just silence and even when you try to talk to them they simply ignore you,” said Mahachi.

“Before the game against Malawi when I met (ZIFA president) Cuthbert Dube, I told him that I did not want to come up with the payment plan or dates when they should deliver because I did not want to put them under pressure,” said Mahachi.

“I told him that they should tell us, given they were the ones who knew their plight, when they would be able to pay the coach and the ZIFA president told me they would have met all their obligations by the end of June.

“Now we have come to the end of July and nothing has happened and the coach is still expected to go out there and perform under such conditions, which we feel is very, very unfair.”

Interestingly, the man that Pasuwa replaced as coach of the Warriors, Ian “Dibango” Gorowa, warned in April this year that his former assistant was likely to run into the same problems that he faced during his stint as Warriors coach.

Gorowa claims that he wasn’t paid for eight months.

“He knows the challenges that we went through when I was working with him, the difficult environment where I ended up buying food for the boys in camp because there was nothing for their supper, and the lack of support, generally, from the Association,” Gorowa said.

Three months later, Gorowa’s words have come to pass.