Zimbabwe have been disqualified from the CAF qualifiers for the 2018 Men’s World Cup for failure to pay wages owed to a former manager of the national side.

Brazilian manager José CLAUDINEI took charge of the Warriors for most of 2008 but is still owed salary from that time. ZIFA, the Zimbabwe Football Association, faces debts totalling more than US$4,000,000, including back wages to other previous coaches and employees.

The case has lingered in FIFA’s various disciplinary panels for at least three years. FIFA’s statement on the disqualification indicated that ZIFA had not appealed the decision, but ZIFA has since announced that it does intend to appeal.

Should the decision stand, it would make Zimbabwe the only one of FIFA’s 209 member nations not to compete in the tournament. This was to have been the first time that all FIFA members participated in the qualifiers or the final tournament.