Hours after it was revealed that ZIFA misused more than US$200 000 donated by President Mnangagwa’s allies, Zimbabwe’s Afcon 2019 campaign is up in smoke as the Warriors have gone on strike barely 24 hours before their match against Egypt, the opening game of the Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) 2019.
The strike is over the issue of per diems (daily allowances) as well as appearance fees.
According to ZTN Sport, some of the players are reported to have started looking for return tickets.
Giving updates on the situation, journalist Howard Musonza wrote,
Warriors are holed up in a meeting with ZIFA officials in Egypt right now and are threatening not to fulfil Friday’s AFCON opener against Egypt. My source says some have already booked their flights back home.
The players allege that ZIFA has been lying to them about their allowances and appearance fees. They say ZIFA also lied to the government about the payments.
At the time of publishing, it was not yet clear if the negotiations had yielded any positive news.
Various news sources reported yesterday that ZIFA forgot the Warriors and used donated money to fly relatives and girlfriends of people working for the organisation to watch Zimbabwe matches in Egypt.
