ZDRAVKO “LOGA’’ LOGARUSIC may have finally been axed for dragging the Warriors into the abyss but the Croatian coach continues to court controversy, with the dodgy contract he signed with ZIFA now the subject of intense scrutiny.
It has emerged that the contract between the 55-year-old
gaffer and ZIFA was not performance-based.
Instead, it guaranteed him more than US$200 000 in salaries
and perks during his short-lived tenure.
Loga was shown the exit door on Sunday as the ZIFA board
buckled under incessant pressure from football fans.
Questions were raised on why football administrators were
keen on retaining the coach, especially after the Warriors got off to a poor
start to their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Loga, who arrived in Zimbabwe in February 2020 with
questionable credentials, now leaves after scoring a number of firsts for the
wrong reasons.
But, he will be smiling all the way to the bank, as he
departs the country after raking in over US$120 000, as a golden handshake from
the duplicitous contract he had with the association.
He is the first coach to retain his Warriors job despite
going on a long, pathetic spell of one win in 14 games.
For his troubles, he is actually walking away with a golden
handshake from ZIFA, which has, however, raised stink.
His contract, which ran from February 2020 up to Sunday,
entitled him to an initial US$6 500 salary, which was raised to US$7 800 in his
second year.
He also enjoyed some good perks that came with it.
A copy of the contract between ZIFA and Croat obtained by
The Sunday Mail Sport shows how the gaffer, who frequently flew to his home
country, was already living large well before he eventually got down to his
coaching duties with an international friendly assignment away against Malawi
on October 11, which ended 0-0.
Before he even touched down in Harare for his February 2020
unveiling by ZIFA, he was paid US$30 500 signing-on fees, with an additional
US$6 100 being paid this year for the same purpose.
And, rather controversially, he became the first Warriors
coach to be paid 10 percent of the US$550 000 of the Africa Cup of Nations
qualification bonus, which translates to a cool US$55 000.
Not even the legendary Chidzambwa, who led the national
team to two African Cup of Nations tournaments, including their maiden
appearance in Tunisia in 2004, was paid for similar efforts.
As a winner of four of the Warriors’ COSAFA Cup titles in
2003, 2009, 2017 and 2018, Chidzambwa was never lavished the same way as Loga.
There will also be no money for Antipas despite the Chicken
Inn coach’s role is setting the foundation for the Warriors to AFCON.
And the cherry on top for Loga is the US$20 000 that he
will be paid as severance pay for getting the sack, since his contract was
terminated before three months’ notice was given.
There are a lot of other ‘obscene’ entitlements that were
also stitched into the contract.
Acting ZIFA vice president Philemon Machana defended the
contract, claiming the Croat had managed to bargain for his package.
Machana, who is also ZIFA board member in charge of
finance, challenged those alleging that the coach was sharing his dues with
members of the executive to provide the evidence.
Loga contract, he added, should not be compared with
contracts that were previously given to former coaches such as Sunday
Chidzambwa and Joey Antipas.
“You don’t say, as an example, if someone comes in and
bargains for a better package, you cannot return and say, ‘why are you giving
my successor ten times more?’” he said.
“As ZIFA, we are open to constructive criticism, but it is
bad when some people make unfounded claims that Loga was sharing his salary
with board members without providing any evidence to substantiate that.
“People should not lie and just try to destroy other people’s
characters for the sake of it; those with evidence of corruption must prove
it.”
Ironically, Felton Kamambo’s board lost confidence in
Loga’s predecessor Joey Antipas after just four matches in charge of the
Warriors.
The Chicken Inn gaffer had begun his Warriors tenure with a
0-1 away defeat to Somalia in a World Cup preliminary round encounter before
turning the tie around with a 3-1 home win.
He then picked four points via a 0-0 home draw against
Botswana and a 2-1 away triumph over Zambia that would later prove to be the
rock upon which the Warriors’ qualification for next year’s Africa Cup of
Nations finals in Cameroon was built.
Uproar over package
But Chidzambwa, the country’s most successful national
coach, blamed the administration for “according expatriates the kind of
luxuries that have never been granted to any local”.
“Since Independence we have never known anything called
qualification bonus being paid out by ZIFA. I remember when we qualified for
Egypt 2019, ZIFA president Kamambo (Felton) only made a pledge to say we will
see how you can be rewarded for qualifying, but nothing materialised,” he said.
“What I have noticed though and which is very sad is that
we have a huge problem of looking down on ourselves as Africans and, if anything,
we actually frustrate our own coaches instead of providing a platform for them
to succeed.
“If it is for a white man, those at ZIFA will run around to
do everything possible, and it is a pity.”
The veteran coach said when the team was in Egypt, ZIFA
deposited some of their dues in foreign currency accounts, but once the team
returned home, the balance was paid in local currency at the ratio of
one-to-one. He was also reportedly promised a car, which he never received.
Antipas was also complained at “being made to understand
that ZIFA was struggling for resources’’ when he was not paid. “It’s so very
sad that despite being very patriotic, we don’t get paid.
All we have been saying to them is, ‘Give us our dues that
we richly deserve.’
“We feel we are used as scapegoats most of the time. I am
yet to be paid for the games against Botswana, which was a draw and the win in
Zambia, and I have not had any engagement from ZIFA,” Antipas said.
Sunday Mail
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