Acting Zifa president Gift Banda has responded to Zimbabwe’s disqualification from the CHAN 2022 tournament.

The country was scheduled to play Malawi in the first round of the qualifiers next week.

After failing to meet CAF’s condition, the Warriors will not partiticipate in the competition.

The continental body wanted Zifa to reinstate the suspended members Felton Kamambo and Joseph Mamutse so that the FIFA ban could be lifted.

The FA had until Saturday to meet the condition, but after the grace period lapsed, CAF took the latest measure ahead of the start of the qualifiers next week.

This is the third time in two months that the country has been disqualified from international competition due to the FIFA ban.

The Warriors were barred from participating in the Afcon 2023 and are not participating in the ongoing 2022 Cosafa Cup.

Reacting to the news, Banda insisted that there is no need to rush the nation back to international football as systems are being put in place to ensure Zimbabwe returns stronger from the FIFA suspension.

The acting FA boss told The Herald: “We can’t put time frames because it’s not in our hands, but we are expressing to the powers that be that we are doing all our things according to the constitution and, now that we have opened the avenues of communication (with FIFA) that were not there before, we are upbeat.

Banda added: “We want to holistically come up with a framework that’s going to work for Zimbabwean football.

“I always ask people that if FIFA were to say the ban is lifted today, are we ready to play? It’s a question I normally pose to many people and the nation at large. I don’t think we are (ready).

“There are a lot of things that we need to do to our football before we can say we are now ready to go back and play international football. We have got to work at our constitution, there are quite a lot of things.”- Soccer 24 Zimbabwe