Zimbabwe team refuse to fly

ZIMBABWE’S national football team refused to board a flight for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Gabon, officials said yesterday, in a dispute over allowances and winning bonuses.

The team were due to fly together on Saturday to Cameroon to play a friendly on Tuesday before proceeding to Libreville.

After tense meetings with the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), some players finally left Harare yesterday morning while the rest of the squad were set to depart later in the day.

“We had a fruitful meeting and the players and administration reached an amicable solution,” ZIFA spokesman Xolisani Gwesela said, declining to elaborate how the impasse was resolved.

On Friday, players sat in hotel corridors and refused to attend a farewell dinner at which the country’s vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa was guest of honour.

“ZIFA totally condemns the behaviour portrayed by the team and their desire to hold the nation at ransom in their quest to earn money that this economy cannot sustain,” the association said in a statement late Saturday.

The players had earlier refused to use “substandard” accommodation at a facility run by the association and were barred from training at the national sports stadium over a $60 debt owed by ZIFA.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been wrecked by hyperinflation, corruption and agricultural collapse, and the national football team has often relied on well-wishers to pay its players and coaches.

A cash shortage in the country has also seen football match attendances drastically plummet. — AFP