The friendly match between the national women football team and Malawi, which had been set for Blantyre on Saturday, has been cancelled.
The match was called off at the request of the Malawians who said they have no finances to host the Mighty Warriors.
Malawi Football Association chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda yesterday wrote to women football boss Mavis Gumbo advising her of the development.
The correspondence from Nyirenda read: “We had sent a budget to the government regarding the friendly match, but honestly speaking it will be impossible to have this friendly match played here as we have not got feedback on the budget since all civil servants are on holiday up to the 9th of January.
“However, we will communicate to you in due course once we have received the funding so that this friendly match can take place.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause, but be assured that we will invite your team in due course.”
The latest development will be bad news to Mighty Warriors head coach Rosemary Mugadza who had hoped to use the match to fine-tune her squad for the Caf African women championships qualifiers which get underway next week.
Zimbabwe are set to play Botswana in the first leg of the first round qualifiers in Gaborone next weekend and the return leg is on the weekend of January 28-29 in Harare.
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The winner will meet African giants Nigeria in the second round of the qualifiers in June.
The Mighty Warriors had trooped into camp on Monday to prepare for the Malawi and Botswana matches. Gumbo yesterday said despite the cancellation of the friendly match, the team would remain in camp until the Botswana match.
“We are naturally disappointed that the match has been cancelled at the eleventh hour. We would have wanted to use the match to prepare our team for the Women Championships qualifiers, but we now have to look for other options. We will have to find local opposition, even a men’s team, to play with the girls. We have less than two weeks before we go to Botswana so we will not break camp,” said Gumbo.
