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Jonathan Mashingaidze

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIFA are from today expected to finally start paying the Warriors their bonuses for their credible African Nations Championships fourth place finish, but indications yesterday were pointing to a dispute brewing over the quantum of the payments. The Warriors have been curiously waiting to be rewarded for their showing at the third CHAN tournament in Cape Town, South Africa, where they ended fourth after losing 1-0 to Nigeria in the Third place play-off and earned US$250 000. Ian Gorowa and his men claim they had been promised half of the prize money which they say was to be shared by the technical crew and the 23 players who travelled to South Africa.

Rank outsiders Libya won the competition and the US$750 000 prize money following a penalty shoot-out win over Ghana in the final.
zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, however, said yesterday that the association would today start paying Gorowa’s men for their showing in Cape Town. Mashingaidze said the payments would be handled by their finance department, which he said would be working closely with team manager Shariff Mussa .

But it is on the model of payment that a storm appears to be brewing with Mashingaidze insisting that zifa were saddled with many debts related to the Warriors CHAN campaign so much that they could “ill-afford to splash half the amount earned to the squad that travelled to Cape Town’’.

Mashingaidze said his association wanted those players that had taken part in the two qualifying rounds against Mauritius and Zambia to be rewarded arguing that it was part of the campaign that culminated with the fourth place finish in Cape Town.

“After receiving the prize money for the CHAN, the association will disburse money honoraria to the Warriors.
“We have tasked our finance department to work out the payments in close consultation with the team manager Shariff Mussa and we have said there should also be some reward for those players who got the ball rolling by playing in the qualifiers and might not have made it into the final 23 for different reasons.

“But as is common knowledge at the moment, we are an association that does not have financial resources and we would want the residue from what will be given to the Warriors to cover debts that are linked to the team’s CHAN campaign.

“Over and above honoraria we have to find ways of thanking the boys and under normal circumstances there would be a sponsor to take care of the bonuses but in our case we do not have one yet. Inasmuch as we would want to reward our players, there is no way the association can afford to have them take 50 percent of it because we need to take cognisance of the fact there are a number of financial obligations related to this squad’s assignments.

“Last year was a very difficult year for zifa in terms of liquidity but like I said if we had a sponsor it would have been a different story so the team manager will work with the finance department to come with the quantum for each member. The Government also helped in servicing their allowances while they were in South Africa,” Mashingaidze said.

An honorarium is defined as an ex gratia payment (that is a payment made without the giver recognising themselves as having any liability or legal obligation) made to a person in return for a service rendered.

Although zifa are of the view of that they should pay even those who played in the qualifiers, the Warriors have a different view with both Gorowa and Mussa indicating that an agreement had been reached between the senior side and outgoing board member marketing Nigel Munyati, who was the head of delegation for the CHAN tour of duty.

“We had been made to understand that we were supposed to share 50-50 with the association and those promises were made by the HOD (Munyati) who was making contact with his colleagues at the association.

“I am only meeting the finance department tomorrow (today) to understand how much they are going to be giving to us and whether they are going to respect the promises that were made to us by the HOD,’’ Mussa said.

Munyati, who contested and lost in his bid for the zifa presidency, declined to discuss much on the matter but indicated that he had appraised his colleagues on the board about the arrangements he had made with the Warriors.

The Aces Youth Academy director failed to garner a single vote in an election that swept Cuthbert Dube back into power after a 44-14 run off win over his nearest challenger Trevor Carelse-Juul.

“Right now I do not want to comment on zifa issues. It would not be fair for me to do so but all I can say is that everybody else be it the chief executive or the board members is aware of what we discussed and agreed,’’ Munyati said.

With Mussa expected to clarify matters with the zifa finance department, the Warriors will be keenly following events at 53 Livingstone Avenue to determine whether they will be smiling their way to the bank for their brave run at the CHAN competition.

Gorowa, who had nasty public row with Mashingaidze last month, was expected in the country last night from his base in South Africa while the zifa chief executive left the country to attend a fifa seminar for general secretaries of all African associations, which runs in Johannesburg from this morning.