BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
HARARE – New Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) president Nqobile Magwizi has showered praise on national team coach Michael Nees following the two’s meeting at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations draw in host country Morocco on Monday.
57-year-old Nees was appointed Zimbabwe’s new coach in July 2024, tasked with taking the country back to the Nations Cup after an international ban prevented the Warriors from qualifying for the last edition in Ivory Coast in 2023. The German quickly turned around a struggling team, guiding the Warriors to the 2025 Afcon finals in Morocco, following an impressive qualification campaign.
After his election as Zifa’s new head on Saturday, Magwizi immediately flew out for the Afcon draw in Moroccan capital Rabat, where he officially met Warriors gaffer Nees for the first time.
“I like Michael, I really like him,” Magwizi told SportsCast from Rabat on Tuesday. “He is spontaneous, he thinks outside the box. He’s got amazing ideas, I really like working with him, you know, he is very efficient in his thought processes. I think the NC (normalisation committee) did a fantastic job in identifying Michael and I think we will go very far (with him), we should give him lots of support. I think we have someone who is good, who loves Zimbabwe. He has an in-depth understanding of the players. So I think we are onto something good. We’ll have a fantastic run with him.”
Zimbabwean football has been governed by a Fifa-appointed normalisation committee since the world football ruling body lifted the country’s 17-month suspension in July 2023. 45-year-old business executive Magwizi now leads his country’s first substantive football federation in over three years.
At a glitzy event in Rabat on Monday evening, Zimbabwe were pooled in Group B alongside Egypt, South Africa and Angola in what has generally been viewed as a fair draw for the Warriors. The 2025 Afcon finals will be staged between 21 December and 18 January 2026 in the North African country.
Magwizi is aware that Zimbabwe has all to do against tough opposition in the pool, but believes the Warriors have an equal chance of progressing to the knock-out stage for the first time in their tournament history.
“Right now, technically, most countries do well,” said Magwizi. “If you look at Equatorial Guinea, they did very well in the last Afcon, and nobody really expected them to do that well. Comoros, they played very well, so in the modern times, most teams play well. They become technically good. It’s no longer the traditional script where you would expect the Nigerias, and your Cameroon, and your Egypt, to do well. Even smaller nations can do well. Of course, Zimbabwe is right at the bottom in terms of the football food chain, we have a big task ahead of us. It’s going to be a tough group, but the worst would have been Zimbabwe being placed in the group where Morocco is, in Group A. I think playing against the host nation, and playing the opening match, would have put a lot of pressure on the boys. That’s what I really prayed for, that it would not happen, and I’m happy that it didn’t happen.
“Group B is equally hectic. I mean, Egypt are playing really well, but it now comes down to our preparation, how well we prepare. Remember, we are planning for the long term, a long-term journey. We will do the best we can, we will equip, and resource the coach and the team to do well. But, remember, we are not looking just to this Afcon. We are looking beyond. So even as we are planning for the 2025 Afcon, we are looking beyond that. So we’ve put our foot forward to give it our best shot. Though of course we’re playing with more experienced teams who have been doing consistently well, we have a point to prove. Our chances are obviously 50-50 because, you know, the reality is Egypt have done consistently well. Angola have been playing very well. SA are adequately funded (but), on a good day we can beat SA. But they are also aware of Zimbabwe’s strengths, so they will be preparing to try and deal with Zimbabwe, to thwart our ambitions of beating them.”
New Zifa boss Magwizi also met Caf president Patrice Motsepe during the 2025 Afcon draw.
Magwizi says the draw in Rabat, his first official event as Zifa’s president, was a learning curve.
“The experience was a good one,” he said. “I’ve attended events before, hosted by Caf, and by Fifa, but of course as a president of an FA, they definitely treat you like a president. So it was a good experience from learning how it is like, should we be given the honour to host a draw as a country, how to do it, and how to handle your VVIPs, who are the presidents coming from all over Africa. So that’s the perspective I got, a new perspective that is. Previously I was attending as a guest, from a corporate space, so the handling is so slightly different. It was obviously good, very efficient organisation, well-funded. You could see that the Moroccan government, you know, goes all out to make sure that its events, events of the FA, are done very well. You’ll notice that in Morocco, the country’s Minister of budgets (Fouzi Lekjaa), is also the president of the FA. They have a finance Minister, but they have a Minister of budgets, who is also responsible for the FA. So it makes it quite easy, and they did a fantastic job, it was a very good event.”
