Zimbabwe axes national football team
Baku, November 3 (AZERTAC). Zimbabwe`s national team was disbanded Friday as a match-fixing scandal continued to seriously undermine the sport in the country even after the conclusion of an investigation into widespread corruption.
ZIFA President Cuthbert Dube questioned the integrity of the team in its last match two weeks ago after it let a 3-1 aggregate lead slip against Angola to miss out on qualification for next year`s African Cup of Nations.
Dube said the team - dogged for more than two years by fixing allegations and with some players and officials only recently banned for life - had now been "discarded.``
"The Warriors, if indeed they were Warriors, have been dissolved en masse,`` Dube said, referring to the team by its nickname. "We will rebuild from the under-20 and the under-23s. These are people who are clean. The team has been discarded in its entirety.``
Dube said only a few current players would be kept after the long-running scandal.
Dube also said his body would put in place an appeals process in accordance with FIFA rules after the 15 players, officials and reporters were banned for life for helping fix Zimbabwe games on tours to Asia in 2009.
ZIFA would have to appoint an independent three-man committee, Dube said, because some members of its current appeals committee were "interested parties.`` It showed how far match-fixing had seeped into Zimbabwean football and ravaged the setup.
Dube said those that were banned were able to appeal from Monday.
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