You'll never qualify for any major tournament even if you get a coach from the moon

Alleged curse by coach Kuoffie

Peter Ndlovu has not been able to steer Zimbabwe to a major finals

Spell or no spell, it is a fact that Zimbabwe are currently languishing at the bottom of the group tables in the qualifying games for the both 2002 African Cup of Nations and the 2002 World Cup.

In the qualifying games so far, they have lost twice in the World Cup and twice in the Nations Cup, the most recent being a 2-1 home humiliation by minnows Lesotho.

Since 1991, they have come very close to qualifying only to fall at the very last hurdle, in heart-breaking fashion.

Even when the country was expecting to be automatic qualifiers for the 2000 African Cup of Nations, the nations was stripped of the right to host the tournament.

We will never qualify even if you bring Westerhoff or even somebody from heaven who can do miracles

Clemens Westerhoff

Zimbabwe's fame has been spread by the likes of Bruce Globbelaar rather than national teams

Other top personalities connected with Zimbabwe football offer other explanations.

"It has to do with organisation. We're not organised," said Clemens Westerhoff, the Dutchman who became Zimbabwe coach in early 1999.

"It's nothing to do with players and nothing to do with coaches. You've had coaches here like Fabisch, Ian Porterfield and Kuoffie, and I can tell you those are good coaches. We always do things at the last moment. We don't prepare well for matches," he added.

"We will never qualify even if you bring Westerhoff or even somebody from heaven who can do miracles," he warned.

"We don't have money for things. We cannot go on time into the training camps. If we can do that the you will see you will qualify - otherwise Zimbabwe will struggle forever," he added.

Zifa to blame?

The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) has come under fire for the team's lack of success.

"Yes we accept the blame at Zifa but we're the only national association in Africa that would look after the interest of the team in everything that we have to do," said Lazarus Murushamana who has been in Zifa for the past 22 years.

"We're not getting the level of support that other national associations are getting. When national teams in other countries qualify to play at international level, the government comes in to write off all the expenses. And we have to run around do everything ourselves," he added.

Despite the excuses and explanations, it appears, many die-hard supporters of Zimbabwe are not expecting the jinx to be broken soon.