Munetsi Urges ZIFA To Organise Friendlies For Warriors
Warriors’ vice-captain Marshal Munetsi said that the ZIFA Normalisation Committee should organise friendly games for the national team ahead of the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Zimbabwe hosts Lesotho on 03 June 2024 before travelling to South Africa to play Bafana Bafana on 10 June 2024.
ZIFA failed to organise a friendly match for the Warriors before they played Rwanda on Wednesday and Nigeria on Sunday.
Speaking in an interview after the 1-1 draw with Nigeria yesterday, the outspoken Munetsi said playing friendly matches will enable players to have a better understanding of each other during competitive matches. The Herald quoted Munetsi as saying:
We need to play friendly matches so that we can be able to have an understanding and cohesion on the pitch because as you saw, for most of the guys, it was our first time playing with each other and I think it will be something good for us if we have more friendly games so that we understand each other better.
Munetsi said the Warriors can draw inspiration from their two draws in the opening two qualifiers considering that they played the home match away from home against Nigeria. He said:
It was challenging that we are playing away but we are playing at home hence we need to learn from these kinds of experiences and grow from there.
The group is very open as we saw from the result of Nigeria and Lesotho and we have something to look forward to.
We had a much better game than what we did against Rwanda and playing against Nigeria they are a big nation and coming from a long ban it’s a positive.
We scored a good free-kick and we managed to manage the game but unfortunately, there were some questionable decisions against us.
We obviously would have wanted to win but we are happy with the outcome.
Munetsi has been one of the Warriors’ most vocal stars in recent years, especially when Zimbabwe was suspended from international football by FIFA.
In October 2022, Munetsi said members of the country’s government-appointed Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) know nothing about football and got their posts through political connections. He said:
These are people who are just in positions because they maybe know someone in government. They don’t know anything about football.
For us, it hurts us a lot because this is our life. This is football and it’s something that can change a nation, that can change a lot of fortunes for the country.
They have to ask us about certain things because, if you hear the accusations, it’s something that doesn’t have anything to do with football – it’s all politics.
In February this year, Munetsi again pleaded with the SRC and ZIFA to find common ground for the country to play international football.
The FIFA suspension was lifted in July in time for the Warriors to participate in the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
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