Cosafa hearing postponed
Zifa to release Warriors, Congo attendance figures
ZIFA are seeking to avert a total fallout with the Cosafa after the association yesterday appealed for the postponement of a disciplinary hearing in which they are facing charges of breaching the contract for the hosting of this year’s tournament.
The association were supposed to appear before the organisation’s Disciplinary Committee today in Johannesburg but the matter will now be determined next Thursday at the same venue.
Zimbabwe face heavy sanctions for reneging on their undertaking to host the regional football competition.
The Cosafa tournament has been pencilled to run from May 25 to June 8 but the fate of this year’s tournament hangs in the balance following the gaffe.
Zifa communications manager, Xolisani Gwesela, yesterday said they have asked for the postponement.
The association, which received the summons a few days ago, requested for more time to prepare their arguments.
The hearing will be handled by Cosafa’s independent judicial body, and the outcome and punitive action will be handed down within 48 hours of the hearing.
“We have written to Cosafa asking for the postponement of the hearing so that they allow us time to prepare for the hearing.
“I can confirm that our request has been granted and the hearing will now be done on April 11. Since the matter is still before the Cosafa Disciplinary Committee, I will not comment further than this.
“More details will be provided later,” said Gwesela.
Zifa committed themselves to hosting the tournament which was previously played on the Zimbabwean soil once in 2009, with the Warriors coming out victorious.
But their hopes of bringing the tournament home again came to naught when they failed to get Government guarantees.
Apparently, this year’s Cosafa tournament ho lds ZIFA have refuted reports that 15 000 people paid to watch the Warriors’ Total Afcon qualifier against the Republic of Congo a fortnight ago, saying official figures will be released after tomorrow’s post match meeting.
The match was won 2-0 by the Warriors at a packed National Sports Stadium on February 24 and they sealed their qualification for the finals in Egypt.
“We will be releasing the official figures after the postmortem meeting of the match on Friday (tomorrow). People must not listen to rumours,” said Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela.
For the first time in the history of the local game, tickets for the match were sold online via an agent Clicknpay.africa, with Zifa releasing physical tickets to various centres towards the day of the match. No tickets were sold at the match venue.
However, sources said a number of tickets eventually found their way into the black market, with a large number being sold at Copacabana in Harare on the day of the match.
“We are not sure if those tickets were accounted for and for us to hear of this 15 000 figure is really something else, especially when we all saw that the National Sports Stadium was almost full to capacity,” said the source.
Meanwhile, as the countdown to the Afcon finals draw continues, the Warriors will play against one of Pot A sides, Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia and Senegal, in the group stages of the tournament.
They will also have to battle either Morocco, Nigeria, Algeria, Mali, Guinea or DRC, who are in Pot B.
The third member of the Warriors’ group will come from the pot that has Mauritania, Benin, Namibia, Kenya, Madagascar and Tanzania, who are in Pot C.
The Warriors, however, will avoid neighbours Bafana Bafana, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Burundi and Uganda in their group matches since they are all in Pot D.
The 24 teams that qualified for the Afcon finals will be drawn into six groups of four teams each during the draw on April 12.
The top two teams and the four best third placed teams will advance to the round of 16. greater significance than before as five regional countries have qualified for the finals of the Afcon tournament to be held in Egypt between June and July. Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar, Angola and Namibia have qualified for the 2019 continental football jamboree and the Cosafa tournament was going to provide the platform they needed going into the tournament. If found guilty they are likely to incur fines of up to $1million and a possible ban. However Zifa are understood to be working on an alternative plan to avert the sanctions.