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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
DESPITE the nation riding on their Nations Cup success story, there is no respite yet for the Warriors with the locally-based contingent failing to resume camp yesterday as ZIFA failed to put their house in order and resolve their payment issues with coach Callisto Pasuwa.

A marathon meeting on the coach’s issue only lasted shortly after 7pm last night with ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube striking a deal with Pasuwa’s manager Gibson Mahachi for a payment plan that is to be fulfilled by June 30.

The Warriors will face Comoros Islands in an African Nations Championships qualifier at Rufaro on Sunday. There was no training on what was supposed to be Day One of camp yesterday amid genuine fears of a repeat of the chaos, which characterised the Warriors camp ahead of their trip to Malawi as focus once again seems to have drifted from the on-field events to the seemingly endless boardroom politics.

Pasuwa and his technical team were holed up in their homes as were the players, with the ZIFA communications manager Xolisani Gwesela insisting that the players had been given off-days and that their training was only scheduled to begin today.

That, however, is in sharp contrast to the programme that Pasuwa had outlined soon after touching down from Blantyre on Monday morning. He said it would be business as usual and was expecting more players such as the Hwange pair of Evans Rusike and Pritchard Mphelele, the Chicken Inn duo of Devine Magaya and Edmore Chirambadare and Triangle’s exciting winger Malvin Gaki to troop in and join those who had been part of the Nations Cup squad.

Pasuwa confirmed he was home and referred all questions to his manager and Mahachi indicated that the coach was set to resume his duties this morning following the agreement he had struck with the ZIFA president.

“I have met with the ZIFA president and his team and they have made a commitment which we are comfortable with and all parties have agreed that and at the end of the month it should be all settled.

“We have agreed that a contract for the coach will only be signed on July 1 by which time the coach should have been given all that he is owed. I trust that the ZIFA president will honour this commitment and I have no reason to doubt him after our discussion.

“I have also discussed with the coach and he is happy with the arrangements and tomorrow he is back at work,’’ Mahachi said.

But, more worryingly for Pasuwa and everyone concerned with the national game, is the trend of chaotic preparations that is fast becoming characteristic of the Warriors business.

Yet Pasuwa has been warning that the senior team cannot continue to expect to grind out results when they would not have done enough to prepare with the unassuming coach arguing that “there are no small teams in Africa anymore’’.

And indeed a glance at the results that emerged from across the continent on the opening day of the 2017 Nations Cup qualification race showed that nothing can be taken for granted anymore with such lightweights like Swaziland stunning Guinea 2-1 in Morocco and Gambia holding South Africa 0-0 in Durban.

The respected football manager, however, said it was imperative that the battle to have ZIFA honouring their financial obligations be separated from the turbulence that rocked the association’s board on Monday afternoon with vice-president Omega Sibanda, board member finance Bernard Gwarada and six councillors being suspended.

Mahachi said he had noted with concern that some parties within the football family “have been trying to connect our demands for the payment of the coach and what has been happening at ZIFA’’.