Zimbabwe: Young Warriors' Calamitous Cosafa Campaign Exposes Zifa's Neglect of Junior Football

17 September 2025
New Zimbabwe (London)
By Darlington Gatsi

Zimbabwe under-17 boys' disastrous performance at the ongoing COSAFA tournament has once again exposed the local football mother body's neglect of the grassroots system.

The Young Warriors were knocked out of the tournament on Monday by Comoros, suffering a 3-2 defeat, which left them winless in Group A, alongside fellow underperformers Eswatini.

The defeat at Ngoni Stadium exposed the Zimbabwe Football Association's (ZIFA) lack of investment and clear structures in grassroots football.

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When Nqobile Magwizi ascended to the presidency of ZIFA earlier this year, he promised sweeping changes at junior level football.

Months later, ZIFA hastily organised trials to assemble the Young Warriors squad, resulting in the humiliation of bowing out of the COSAFA tournament without a win.

Zimbabwe managed to score two goals against Comoros after enduring more than 180 minutes without finding the back of the net against Mozambique and Eswatini.

Young Warriors coach Thulani Sibanda was blunt in his assessment of the squad that was assembled for the tournament.

"You saw the games. You saw the goals that we conceded. Just look at the three goals that we conceded; even social players can defend those goals.

"The truth of the matter is that we are discovering the quality of these players here; that is a fact I cannot run away from," said Sibanda.

Crashing out of COSAFA is a missed chance for Zimbabwe to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Morocco next year.

Zimbabwe also missed a shot to compete for one of the 10 slots for African teams that will qualify for the expanded 48-team Under 17 World Cup to be hosted by Qatar next year.

Sibanda further said the lack of sufficient preparation culminated in Zimbabwe performing badly.

"The truth of the matter is, in football there are players that are introverts and there are players that are extroverts; those that quickly express themselves and there are players that will take time to express themselves. If you have a longer time to select players you can see both of those players," he said.

An assignment is on ZIFA and the newly appointed technical director, Dominique Niyonzima, to conjure a plan and craft a junior football policy.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.

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