They might not be high profile opponents, but at least the Warriors of Zimbabwe will have some form of competition against Burkina Faso and Niger on June 6 and June 8 as they fine tune their team for Afcon 2025.
Facing Burkina Faso and Niger is far much different than not playing at all or facing Zambia or Malawi as has been the case in the past when Zimbabwe did not benefit anything meaningful from our southern African neighbours.
We surely would have wanted to face African football powerhouses like Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia or Algeria, but those teams prefer to play against each other or European opposition in such matches.
Even the likes of Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and Mali, are not interested in playing lowly ranked teams like Zimbabwe because they see no benefit in doing so.
As for South Africa, we are in the same 2026 World Cup and Afcon 2025 groups with them and as such they would not at all be interested in playing the Warriors of Zimbabwe.
As for Nigeria, we finished our matches with them in 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, but at the moment there is nothing the Warriors can benefit from the Super Eagles as they are no longer the force of old.
Events on the ground even suggests that Burkina Faso are at the moment far much better than Nigeria while the gap between the Super Eagles and Niger has narrowed greatly.
Whatever the case is, the truth is that Zifa are moving in the right direction as the matches will give national coach Michael Nees the chance to experiment with his players without worrying much about results.
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Nees has been all over the United Kingdom and these matches will provide him with the opportunity to have a look at the players who have never featured for the Warriors before but are interested in turning out for Zimbabwe.
We are not sure what were the results of the discussion with the likes of Trey Nyoni, Isaac Mabaya, Shumaina Mheuka, Ethan Sutherland and others but we hope they will be available to turn out for the Warriors, starting with the matches against Burkina Faso and Niger.
England based sports reporter Admire Muhimeke thinks the Warriors will not be easy to beat at Afcon 2025 should all these players make themselves available.
"These are high class players who can beat any team in Africa if all of them are available. They only need time together to gel and the final product would be a stronger and different Warriors," commented Muhimeke.
Zimbabwe are at Afcon 2025 in a seemingly intimidating group that includes Angola, Egypt, and South Africa, but one that the Warriors can successfully negotiate their way through if they are thoroughly prepared.
On that premise, we also hope that financially, Zifa will be in a position to look after the players well against Burkina Faso and Niger so that they will make themselves available after the June matches.
Chaos will only help to chase the players away from future international engagements and what we want is smooth organisation which will also attract other players to the Warriors for future assignments.
Sadly, though, the Warriors will not be playing at home as the National Sports Stadium is still undergoing renovations but there is also the fact that these friendly matches are not meant for the fans but for the coach to build a strong team for Afcon 2025 and World Cup 2030.
However, there are still those die hard football fans who will be willing to travel to Morocco on their own costs for those international friendlies which are on important FIFA dates.
It would be good for new players coming into the Warriors set up for the first time to have support from the terraces even in friendly matches like these and for that matter, far away from home.
Although results in the Burkina Faso and Niger matches are not all that important, Nees should, however, be reminded that winning will help the Warriors move up the FIFA world rankings in the next update.
We applaud Zifa for what they are doing for the Warriors and the next thing we expect is to play European opposition even if it means Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan or Belarus, but not the likes of little San Marino or Liechtenstein.
Zifa, however, should also be reminded that they should not forget the Mighty Warriors because they too also need the same support that the association is rendering to the Warriors.
So far, Zifa appears to be on the right path.
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