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Norman Mapeza

Paul Mundandi in ZVISHAVANE
NORMAN Mapeza has extended an olive branch to ZIFA, saying it’s time to let bygones be bygones, and called for a united front in working for the development of football in this country. The 42-year-old coach has had a frosty relationship with ZIFA since the country’s football mother body suspended him in February 2012, when he was in charge of the Warriors, for his alleged involvement in the Asiagate match-fixing scandal.

A ZIFA-commissioned investigation cleared Mapeza but the young coach was still handed a six-month suspension from football by the association’s leadership, in November 2012.

When Mapeza’s suspension lapsed, he found himself jobless as ZIFA had replaced him with Rahman Gumbo, who also lost the job to German coach Dieter-Klaus Pagels after he failed in a mission to take the Warriors to the 2013 Nations Cup finals.

His poisoned relationship with ZIFA was highlighted by the association’s decision to first notify Methembe Ndlovu, who had been banned for two years, that he had served his ban and was free to return to the bench, while Mapeza, banned for just six months, languished in the cold.

Mapeza, who returned to football coaching in August after he was appointed FC Platinum head coach, and won his first major piece of silverware, the Chibuku Super Cup, in his second coming on Sunday, said this was not the time to open old wounds.

While the rest of the continent was yesterday engaged with the final round of qualifiers for the 2015 Nations Cup finals in Equatorial Guinea, the Warriors were watching from the sidelines after having last played in the same tournament in June this year when they were bundled out of the preliminary round by Tanzania.

Mapeza told The Herald that there was need for people to come together, to work and rebuilt Zimbabwe football, rather than perpetuate the boardroom battles that have resulted in the Warriors losing their way in international football.

He said he was ready to play his part in helping Zimbabwe football, and despite carrying the emotional scars of two years spent in isolation, he was prepared to forgive those who wronged him for the sake of opening a new chapter that will help the national game move forward.

“We must sit down (with ZIFA) and talk and if I wronged them I must give my apologies,” said Mapeza.
“And if it was them who wronged me, they must come out and apologise and we move forward.

“I spent two years on the sidelines. I, however, want to work for my country and develop football.
“I am a football person and my desire is to see football developing in Zimbabwe.”

Mapeza said he owed Zimbabwe football a lot for giving him a platform to build his professional career which flourished when he went to Europe and played for Turkish giants Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League,

The former Warriors skipper and coach believes he still has to pay back his nation.
“It was through Zimbabwe, and it was through football, that I managed to do that (play in the UEFA Champions League) and I still have a lot to pay back,” said Mapeza.

Mapeza maintains that he still does not know why he ended up being suspended but feels this is not the time to open old wounds but for everyone to come together and help in developing Zimbabwe football.

An arbitrator, Caleb Mucheche ruled that ZIFA’s suspension, and subsequent dismissal of Mapeza, was unfair and ordered the association to pay the coach $243 000 after the coach had filed a $400 000 suit against the football mother body.

“If the respondent (ZIFA) was fully convinced that the claimant (Mapeza) had a case to answer, it should have arraigned him before a disciplinary panel for him to answer to those charges rather than leaving everything to its own whim and caprice,” ruled the Arbitrator.

“The treatment of the claimant at the hands of respondent (ZIFA) from February 8, 2012 up to the date he resorted to legal recourse resembles deep agony of a victim of naked injustice at the hands of spineless, heartless and cruel taskmaster.”