Pagels set to leave Tuesday, 18 June 2013 01:49 View Comments Pagels PAGELS SET TO LEAVE DIETER Klaus Pagels’ turbulent and short reign as Warriors coach ends on July 31 amid stunning revelations that Zifa have not thrashed out a new deal for the German gaffer to extend his stay in this country. Zifa have been giving a public impression that they have a deal in place to keep Pagels here longer than his original mandate, sponsored by the German government, to work here as a football development expert until the end of next month. But The Herald can exclusively reveal today that there is nothing, right now, on the table for Pagels to stay a further one day in this country as the Warriors coach when his government-to-government programme runs out on July 31. Although Pagels has assumed the role of Warriors coach, in the past few months, and guided the team in three World Cup qualifiers, the coach hasn’t signed a new deal to keep him here beyond July 31. Pagels has been waiting, for months now, for Zifa to submit their contract so that he can put pen to paper, but nothing has been coming onto the table and the German coach now appears resigned to going back home at the end of next month. He has been quietly preparing for his return to Germany for some time now and, just to confirm that, he has been doing all the paperwork to ensure he gets the clearance needed from the German Foreign office. His last supper with the Warriors is now going to be Zimbabwe’s tie against Mauritius in the African Nations Championships on the weekend of July 26-28. By the time the Warriors play the return match in August, as well as the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Mozambique, the tall coach would have waved goodbye to African football and nestled back in his home town of Stade near Hamburg. Recently, the gaffer told The Herald that his remaining assignments are the Cosafa Championship, which gets underway in Lusaka from July 6 to 21, and the away assignment to Mauritius in the Chan tournament. While Zifa have been publicly saying that they have secured the services of the expatriate for another year, and have given the coach a mandate to rebuild the national team, their words haven’t been backed by paperwork. Last month, Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze told this newspaper that they had successfully negotiated for the extension of the coach’s stay in Zimbabwe. “I can confirm that Zifa have sought permission from the authorities in terms of the period and we managed to get a facility for him to be able to be with us up to next year,” said Mashingaidze. “In the meantime we are working on house-keeping issues considering that his contract will expire in September.” But The Herald has established that Pagels will not be available, on the current deal, a day after July 31. The coach has also been completing the paperwork, with his employers, to enable him to now leave for Germany. Pagels said while he has had reports of the extension of his stay here, there was nothing that had been offered to him, in terms of paperwork, and he had not inked any new deal. Zifa would be expected to now take care of all the costs of keeping Pagels here, when they take over as the employers of the coach, rather than the current scenario where his salary is being paid by the German government. Pagels arrived in Zimbabwe in August 2010 as Zifa technical advisor, under the auspices of the Olympic Solidarity Fund on the secondment of the Germany Olympic Federation. His initial contract, which was a two-year deal, ended last year but was extended for another year and is set to expire at the end of next month. Pagels’ mission was to help the country in its football development programmes by providing technical expertise in youth football and also work with women’s football. For the past two years, he did a lot of work with junior development structures throughout the country and hosted tournaments like the Under-14 Boys inter-provincial football tourney which was funded by the German Olympic Committee. He also managed to organise a two-week training camp for the Mighty Warriors in Germany in 2011. The German closely worked with Zifa technical director, Nelson Matongorere, in a number of projects, such as organising training courses for the trainers and even facilitating training workshops for the local coaches in Germany. However, Pagels was appointed as the coach of the Zimbabwe senior men’s soccer team last year in November, following the sacking of Rahman Gumbo, after he failed to take the Warriors to the 2013 Nations Cup finals. Zifa enjoyed his services, at least for free, as the coach still had a running contract and continued to receive his salary from his paymasters in Germany. But with the coach’s contract set to expire it means his extended stay would be at the expense of Zifa who have to offer him a contract that has perks that he can either accept or turn down and that process of negotiations hasn’t already started. There is a possibility that there could be last-minute talks between the coach and Zifa, in the next few weeks, and that could provide a new twist and force a change of events that could see Pagels staying on for another year. In the event that there are no dramatic developments, Pagels could return home and resume his career as a music teacher. The German does things according to schedule. His wife was here last month and Pagels told The Herald that “he was taking her to Kariba for her last holiday in Africa”. That statement probably revealed that the coach was planning for life outside Zimbabwe, in particular, and Africa in general when the next European summer holidays come around May/June next year. Pagels didn’t travel to Malawi for an international friendly and insisted his holiday break was long planned before and Zifa knew all about it. Pagels’ wife lives in Stade and works for a local bank there while his daughter works in South Africa. His good salary from the Germany Government means that he can afford to bring his wife into Zimbabwe and South Africa for holidays but whether that will still be possible, in the highly unlikely event that he stays around, on a Zifa salary, remains to be seen. Last week, German Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Hans Gutter Gnotke, spoke about Pagels after paying a courtesy call on Zanu-PF national chairman Simon-Khaya Moyo. Gnotke said while it was sad that Zimbabwe had lost to Egypt, he felt it was important that the country should keep “Pagels as he is a good man”. Zifa have been under severe stress, in recent weeks, with the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign having crashed off course in what has been the Warriors’ worst campaign for a place at the globe’s biggest football festival, in history. The Warriors are yet to win a single match in five games and are still bottom of the group after just one point out of a possible 15 points. Pagels has been in charge of three of the World Cup matches and his team has lost all the games, twice against Egypt and once against Guinea, but two of the games have been away from home. Although the Warriors lost to Guinea on Sunday, Pagels had an alibi as the preparations for the tour of duty were chaotic and rather than blame the coach and his team, the fans have found some sympathy while questioning the way Zifa handled the trip. Pagels was angry over the way the trip was handled and launched a rare and blistering attack on the Zifa board last week, which appeared to suggest that their relationship had reached breaking point. Interestingly, Pagels has been saying that he is trying to build a team, based on his tiki taka football style, but whether there will be time for his ideas to be implemented, given that he is yet to commit himself to another deal, remains to be seen. FROM THE HERALD
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:48:50 +0000
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