The emotional nuances of a sportsperson having to represent their country are too many to mention. Being able to represent your country in a sporting competition is simply a tremendously cherished experience.
For any sportsperson, donning one’s national colours invokes a deep sense of national pride.
That gesture of placing their right palm on their heart when their national anthem is sung —which originated in the United States flag code of 1942 to distinguish the American gesture from the Nazi salute- has been adopted worldwide and demonstrates respect for one’s country of origin and a commitment to represent wholeheartedly.
Representing your country, as some may argue, is an honour, not a right, hence the need to create a third hand to grab the opportunity when it comes, and not to confuse it with some kind of entitlement.
Whether or not one needs to do their best to ensure victory in a sporting competition when wearing national colors, regardless of the occasion, is not even a subject for discussion.
In 2025, Zimbabwe’s national soccer teams have not performed to expectation, leaving fans feeling increasingly disheartened.
In February 2025, the senior women’s national team —the Mighty Warriors- missed out on a chance to qualify for the WAFCON, after losing on penalties to Angola at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa.
In June, the Simon Marange-led Warriors failed to progress to the knockout stages of the 2025 COSAFA Cup —a tournament Zimbabwe has won six times.
In July, the Zimbabwe U-20 men’s team was eliminated from the COSAFA Youth Championship, finishing bottom of Group A.
Earlier this month, the country’s flagship national soccer team, the Warriors, were eliminated from the 2026 World Cup qualifiers after back-to-back 1-0 defeats to Benin and Rwanda.
Michael Nees’s charges, who are winless in the entire campaign, are bottom of Group C with two rounds of fixtures remaining.
American multinational technological company Apple released the iPhone 17 during the same week Zimbabwe were booted out of the qualifiers for the global extravaganza.
Intriguingly, the iPhone 5 was the latest model the last time Zimbabwe won a World Cup qualifier. What a yawn!
With football stakeholders still debating whether or not Nees should remain at the helm of the Warriors, the Zimbabwe U-17 team was booted out of the COSAFA U-17 championship in the first round despite the regional showpiece being hosted locally.
The remarks by coach Thulani Sibanda, after the Young Warriors were beaten by Comoros at a packed MWOS Ngoni Stadium in Norton, summed up the crisis.
“Even social footballers could have defended better. You cannot expect such kind of defending from professional footballers,” a dejected Sibanda said.
Former national teams General Manager Wellington Mpandare reckons the problem can be explained by an interplay of several factors, chief among them failure to adequately prepare for matches.
“Before I became the General Manager of the national teams, I was a staunch supporter of the Warriors, and I can tell you that the biggest undoing is the way we prepare our national teams as well as continuity,” remarks Mpandare.
“If you look at the AFCON 2017 tournament, when it was being coached by Kalisto Pasuwa, he did very well during the continental spectacle, but remember, there was chaos before the tournament when the players refused to see the then Honorable Vice President, who is now the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“He (President Mnangagwa)
was the guest of honour at their send-off ceremony at Rainbow Towers, but the players refused to see him because it was chaotic and they demanded their money first.
“When you have those kinds of preparations and then expect positive results, it’s wishful thinking.
“What then happened during the tournament? Somehow the team played well, competitively in a very tough group which included African powerhouses Algeria, Senegal and Tunisia. But instead of making sure there is continuity in the project and the need to correct our mistakes in the future, we dismissed the coach, Pasuwa.
“Ahead of the AFCON finals in Egypt, when we had Sunday Chidzambwa in charge, we won two consecutive COSAFA tournaments and even beat a Democratic Republic of Congo, who were ranked third in Africa.
“What I am trying to say is, we have the talent and potential to beat anyone on the African continent, but our biggest let-down is the lack of adequate preparation and continuity.
“After such an impressive qualifying campaign, during which we beat DRC away in Kinshasa, we were supposed to prepare well for the AFCON finals in Egypt.
“But instead of doing that, we didn’t, and there was chaos during the tournament, with players refusing to play because of money issues. CAF officials had to come to the team hotel to speak to the players so that the game against Egypt could be fulfilled.
“The issues would haunt the team again ahead of the last group game against DRC, nobody wanted to play because of the very same issues. Some players even started to complain of injuries ahead of the game, and it was just a disaster simply because they were not happy.
“DRC, the very same team that was in our group during the qualifiers and failed to beat us home and away, walloped us 4-0 during the actual tournament. That shows you something was definitely not right,” adds Mpandare.
The former Gunners official insists the way the Warriors performed was a reflection of the chaos within the administration of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA).
“It all comes down to the way we look after our players, and their performance was a summary of what was happening at the top, not of their collective ability as a group.
“To add insult to injury, no one even asked Chidzambwa for lessons learnt from the tournament, and he was soon after.
“On a good day, Zimbabwe can beat anyone; there is history to prove that. The only problem is how we, as a country, see football from an administrative viewpoint.”
Mpandare believes the other problem is preferential treatment given to foreign coaches, which their local counterparts don’t get.
“Currently, Michael Nees is the coach, and he was given all that he needed to prepare for games. He even had the luxury to send another coach to COSAFA to prepare for bigger assignments, and you can never see that happening to a local coach.
“I will still come back to the preparation issue because it is the most important. Nees should have gone to the COSAFA with the very same players and assessed them in preparation for World Cup qualifiers.
“How then do you have combinations then, because training alone is not enough. Besides, he was taking over a team he barely knew. So why not get some sort of advice from local coaches who have worked with these players for more than a decade?
“Coaches like Pasuwa, Joey Antipas and Norman Mapeza have been there before and can be consulted for advice because they know these players. These coaches are also Zimbabweans, and this is the national team, hence there should be a collective effort in seeking positive results,” Mpandare added.
Former Warriors forward Gabriel Nyoni concurs that lack of organization is the main problem tormenting national teams in Zimbabwe.
“Losing in the first rounds is not simply a failure of eleven men on the field—it reflects what has been built off it. Recent months have exposed uncomfortable truths across men’s and women’s football in Zimbabwe,” says Nyoni.
The Warriors bowed out of the 2025 COSAFA Cup after a slim goal difference, despite a win over Mozambique. The domestic-based team also fell to Eswatini in the CHAN qualifiers. On the women’s side, the Mighty Warriors were eliminated by Angola in a penalty shootout. These are not isolated flukes—they are part of a pattern.
“The causes are structural. Governance and continuity matter. Zimbabwe’s football administration has faced traumatic pauses and external interventions in recent years. FIFA suspensions and recovery periods disrupted planning, funding, and international calendars. Chronic under-investment in coaching, youth development, and the domestic league leaves players tactically and physically underprepared for modern football.
“Frequent coaching changes and short preparation camps exacerbate the problem. Teams arrive without a clear identity, forcing game plans to be reactive rather than rehearsed.
“This explains why slim margins—a goal difference, a set-piece, a penalty shootout—decide our fate. Strong teams turn these ‘small things’ into an advantage; we often do not.
“The human element cannot be ignored. Players carry the weight of unstable club seasons, poor facilities, and uncertain pay. The pathway from under-18 academies to professional football is still porous.”
Nyoni, just like Mpandare, insists there is football talent in abundance in the country, but it is not being well nurtured by those who with the power to make decisions.
“Talent exists, but scaffolding to turn it into consistent international performance is incomplete. Many players seek stability abroad, creating a gap between potential and performance.
“Stabilize leadership and planning. A 3–5-year roadmap that survives administrative reshuffles, with clear benchmarks for youth development, coaching licences, and league professionalism.
“Invest in the basics. Quality pitches, sports science, scouting, and trained coaches are the plumbing of success, not luxuries.
“Protect preparation. Longer camps, tactical cohesion, and meaningful friendlies must take priority over ad-hoc assembly of stars.”
Football fans in Zimbabwe have had very little to celebrate under the current ZIFA administration, but the association’s vice president, Loveness Mukura, while acknowledging the problem, called for patience.
“We are very much committed to changing the narrative when it comes to the performance of the national teams,” says Mukura.
“Winning is a process, and we are still in the transition stage. We recently assumed office, but that is obviously not an excuse.
“We are actually making advances in making sure that we change the whole story.”
