Coltart blames ‘politics’ for Warriors failures

October 14, 2012

New Zimbabwe

14 October 2012

SPORTS Minister David Coltart says depoliticising football should be the first step to solving what is wrong with Zimbabwean football. Coltart spoke on Sunday after Zimbabwe lost 2-0 away to Angola as they failed to qualify for the 2013 African Cup of Nations finals.

Manucho’s double in Luanda brought the aggregate scores level at 3-3, but Angola went through on away goals rule. Coltart said: “Along with the rest of Zimbabwe, I’m bitterly disappointed with our failure to qualify for AFCON 2013. But it was so close and well done. When we clean up Zimbabwe football and rid it of political influence, we will start getting better results on the field – the two are linked.”

Coltart urged the Zimbabwe Football Association to finalise its investigation into match fixing in football so the country can start planning for future tournaments. Over 60 players and officials are implicated in the worst corruption to hit local football. ZIFA officials say players and coaches took bungs from Asian betting syndicates to lose matches by set scores – allowing the syndicates to clean up at the bookies.

Coltart said: “Now we need to analyse the Asiagate report out this week and continue the process of cleaning up and de-politicising Zimbabwe football.”