Steve Vickers BBC Sport, Harare

Rogers is taking legal action

The chief executive of the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) has been removed from his post on the grounds of incompetence.

Edgar Rogers has been held responsible for a chaotic trip to Mali that could have cost Zimbabwe their place at next year's Nations Cup finals.

In a letter to Rogers, acting Zifa chairman Vincent Pamire wrote: "The Zifa board is extremely dissatisfied with your performance, which borders on being incompetent."

But the long-serving sports administrator and former secretary general of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee has accused the board of using him as a scapegoat.

He told BBC Sport website that he has taken legal action against Zifa, who want to re-assign him to the post of developing the association's marketing division and training village.

Stranded

Last month the national team was stranded in Johannesburg en-route to Mali after Zifa had failed to pay Cameroon Airlines for their tickets.

The players then returned to Harare and only avoided forfeiting the 21 June fixture, which ended in a goalless draw, when the government agreed to charter a plane to Bamako.

"I had booked the Warriors on an earlier flight with Ethiopian Airlines before Zifa changed the arrangements, which led to the problems," said Rogers.

Over the years the Zifa board itself has been accused of mismanagement and Fifa has ordered that elections for a new executive committee be held by the end of September.