ZIMBABWE Football Association (Zifa) president Phillip Chiyangwa has quashed mounting media reports that the Warriors are on the verge of boycotting the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Gabon.
Zimbabwe’s players, the only hope for the Southern Africa region, have been on monetary protests, demanding better bonus fees for the tournament set to start on Saturday in Libreville until 5 February.
Chiyangwa has argued that the Warriors are highly paid with over R68 million ($5m) budgeted for the whole competition that will be shared among players and technical staff.
He told SunSport yesterday that he was the one who signed all the bonus agreements for the players and that they would honour their promise.
“People are blowing this bonus issue out of proportion,” he said.
“We are the highest paid federation in the competition. Uganda are paying an overall $1,2 million to their players. Compare that to $5 million. And with all this brouhaha we expect very good results.”
Sports pundits said it was expected that Chiyangwa would try and spin the whole embarrassing ordeal as it would come back to haunt him as head of the federation and signatory to the bonus deals.
The drama-filled weekend saw Warriors players refusing to board a flight en route to the competition in their dispute over allowances and winning bonuses.
The players demanded a R17 000 daily allowances, R69 000 appearance fee and R78 000 win bonus.
Chiyangwa said he was delighted that his players, most of whom ply their trade in South Africa’s PSL, held the mighty Cameroon to a 0-0 draw.
“In our friendlies we have managed to beat Tanzania, Zambia and many more top sides. We are aware that the team will be representing the whole SADC region and the players have promised not to disappoint.”
The team was due in Gabon yesterday from Cameroon where they will open their group matches against Algeria in Stade de Franceville on Sunday before tackling Senegal next Thursday and completing the group matches against Tunisia on 23 January.
“We have done everything right and this our time to prove our readiness,” Chiyangwa said.
The majority of Zimbabwe’s players are popular names to South Africans and include Cuthbert Malajila, Knowledge Musona, Nyasha Mushekwi, Tendai Ndoro, Evans Rusike, Matthew Rusike, Willard Katsande and Onismor Bhasera.
