Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry has lashed out at the country’s football association for not taking the women’s team seriously.
The former Olympic champion swimmer was angered by how the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) handled the refusal by the Mighty Warriors to play an Olympic qualifier against Zambia on Sunday over unpaid allowances.
Zifa accused the players of breaching their contract.
But the minister said her request for a meeting with the Zifa chairman to discuss the crisis was met with a request for funds for the men’s team instead.
Ms Coventry accused Zifa of not being accountable for the money it gets from Fifa, football’s world governing body.
She said she wanted to know how those funds were being used before handing over tax payers’ money.
“Asking for money alone is not asking for help. You need help in restructuring everything from the ground up,” she said in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
