Acting ZIFA president Gift Banda, insists Zimbabwe needs to have a football philosophy before the discussion of who should coach the Warriors, starts.

The Njube-Lobengula legislator took over the reins at the country’s football governing body on one of the resolutions made by the Zifa emergency general meeting (EGM), held in April.

In his first press conference as acting Zifa president, Banda revealed that if it were up to him, the Warriors would have a local coach.

Speaking to the media yesterday, the former Bulawayo deputy mayor said Zimbabweans need to agree on the kind of football we should play as a country, before a national team coach, who must be full-time, is appointed.

“We should have a full-time Warriors coach but before we appoint one, we have asked the Technical Director (Wilson Mutekede) to come up with our football philosophy,” said Banda.

“As a country, I think we all agree that we don’t have a philosophy. We don’t even know what kind of football we play as a country. We are always trying to fit in the philosophies of the coaches that we employ.

Banda says Zimbabwe must take a leaf from the books of successful countries like Belgium and Senegal in terms of football identity.

“If you look at countries like Belgium, Germany and even Senegal, who have been successful, they do have philosophies and know what they want in terms of the football played. That is what we want to copy.

“We should ask ourselves as Zimbabweans: what is the kind of football we want to play so that we also teach our coaches on the developmental side,” he added.

Zimbabwe has had four national team coaches since 2019.

Sunday ‘Mhofu’ Chidzambwa took the Warriors to the 2019 Afcon finals in Egypt before he resigned and Joey ‘Mafero’ Antipas took over on an interim basis.

Firebrand Croat Zdravko Logarusic then took over in February 2020.

Loga as Zimbabweans referred to him, was sacked in September 2021 and replaced by crowd-favourite and former national team captain Norman Mapeza.

Mapeza took the Warriors to the Afcon 2021 finals in Cameroon and his contract was not renewed after the biannual showpiece.