THE Zimbabwe Football Trust is battling to raise $1 million for the Warriors’ assignments, including the forthcoming 2014 World Cup qualifier against Egypt at the National Sports Stadium on June 9.
Report by Tawanda Tafirenyika
After this match, the Warriors will travel to Guinea before playing host to Mozambique to complete their World Cup assignments.
In July, a squad of locally-based players will take part in the Cosafa Castle Cup in Zambia and the African Nations Championships (Chan) 2014 qualifiers.
Zimbabwe Football Trust chairman Tshinga Dube appealed to all “patriotic Zimbabweans”, including those in the Diaspora, to spare at least one United States dollar or its equivalent in material form.
“We want to see the flag of our country flying together with those of other top soccer nations. We cannot continue to downplay the importance of soccer. As a soccer nation, we have been doing well in the past, but we have now sunk a little bit. We tend to be more successful failures because of finance problems. Some times we have failed to fulfil our international fixtures. We, therefore, appeal to all patriotic Zimbabweans to help in mobilising resources for our football. We have urgent assignments to fulfil and need at least $1m,” Dube said at a Press conference in Harare.
Yesterday’s event was also attended by members of the trust who include Mbada Diamonds chief executive Patience Khumalo, representatives of the Golden Jubilee Committee and the corporate sector.
Khumalo said: “We need to get the job done, we need solutions and we should be permanently raising funds for this cause. We need everybody’s support and that includes the media.”
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The Warriors are set to go into camp on June 3 to prepare for the match against Egypt. The camp will have foreign-based players who include Knowledge Musona, Denver Mukamba, Quincy Antipas, Rodreck Mutuma and Khama Billiat.
Warriors assistant coach Lloyd Mutasa was in Malawi with the Warriors for an international friendly match on Saturday, where Zimbabwe managed a 1-1 draw against the hosts.
Mutasa fielded home-based players for the friendly and says he was impressed with the performance of a number of players. He said most of those players could make it into the squad to prepare for the Egypt match. The Warriors assistant coach said there was likely to be stiff competition for the national team shirt ahead of the Egypt game.
“We played well in Malawi. The guys were impressive. We conceded the goal in the first half against the run of play. It was a soft goal, but I was really impressed with the way the players applied themselves given that they had trained just for a day. We identified some more players who we think can make the squad to prepare for the Egypt match. We will sit down as a technical department when the head coach comes back and we take it from there,” Mutasa said.
Robin Ngalande scored for Malawi in the 29th minute, but Kudakwashe Musharu equalised for the visitors in the 72nd minute.
Warriors head coach Klaus Dieter Pagels is in Germany attending to family issues. He asked Mutasa to take charge of the friendly against Malawi in his absence.
