Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa has made a promise to bring back the Zifa Cup which disappeared from the local football calendar due to lack of sponsorship.
Our Staff
The idea to bring back the cup competition — bankrolled by the country’s football association — was one of the six major recommendations agreed at a meeting attended by Chiyangwa, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and the Sport and Recreation minister Makhosini Hlongwane in the capital yesterday to review the Warriors’ poor showing at the on-going African Nations Champions (Chan) competition in Rwanda.
The Warriors flew back into the country two days ago after failing to make it past the group stages of the completition.
They suffered two straight defeats to neighbours Zambia and Mali before drawing 1-1 against Mali in a dead-rubber match.
The Zifa Cup is the only competition that gives teams from as low as the community level a chance to play against big clubs, as it accommodates teams from lower ranks of Zimbabwean football.
Chiyangwa said Zifa had already secured a sponsorship deal with a Bangladesh business tycoon, which would see Zifa getting close to $40 million.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“Part of the money from this deal will go towards reviving the Zifa Cup, while some of it will be used to establish the School of Excellence, which was another resolution from the meeting. After developing all systems that will see us identifying talent from rural areas, schools and communities, it was agreed in the meeting that we then, as Zifa, have to come up with a School of Excellence, where all identified talent would be nurtured,” Chiyangwa said in a statement.
Other resolutions of the meeting were that Zifa had to activate community football by establishing and supervising community clubs and that Hlongwane had to approach his counterpart in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Lazarus Dokora, to convince him to have football played throughout the year.
The meeting also agreed that Zifa should take full advantage of SRC sports programmes like the Youth Games and the Youth Education through Sport, while Chiyangwa was also challenged to have Zifa personnel at ward level in the form of volunteers.
