HARARE - The Zimbabwe Football Association has sensationally disbanded the whole national team and sacked coach Rahman Gumbo along with his entire technical bench, it emerged yesterday.

Zifa wielded the axe during a crisis board meeting in Harare on Wednesday night.

The sweeping measures have been taken two weeks after the Warriors’ disastrous failure to qualify for next year’s African Nations Cup finals in South Africa following the Luanda debacle, which Zifa blame on the players and coach. While Zifa also came under heavy criticism for the failed qualification quest, it is Gumbo and his players who have been sacrificed in a massive clean up set to have another telling impact on the country’s player base, coming as it does hard-on-the-heels of the widely-publicised Asiagate bans.

Zifa president Cuthbert Dube, in a previous interview with the Daily News, gave a hint the national side would be dissolved following the shattering 2-0 loss to Angola, but it was the fate of Gumbo which many thought would leave the board divided.

However, following debate which lasted into the night, Zifa board members finally agreed to undertake an en masse dismissal.

Meanwhile, a Zifa high-performance technical committee will hand over a report to the Zifa board before November 12. The report will map the way forward on the composition of the future Warriors squad, which is expected to be made up of players from the national youth sides and a few survivors from Gumbo’s reign.

Gumbo’s dismissal becomes the second time he has been shown the exit door by Zifa for incompetency. In 2006, he was sacked following Zimbabwe’s humiliating 3-0 loss at home to Nigeria.

Only in July he was also fired by Castle Premiership side FC Platinum following a string of poor results.

The fate of Gumbo’s assistants, who include Peter Ndlovu and David Mandigora, would be decided by the Benedict Moyo-chaired technical committee.