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NewsDay

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Dairibord eyes Anfield

Sport
IT’S not every day that one gets a chance to travel to England, let alone an opportunity to visit one of the English Premier Soccer League clubs.

IT’S not every day that one gets a chance to travel to England, let alone an opportunity to visit one of the English Premier Soccer League clubs.

BY HENRY MHARA

But Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) has provided one of its clients, Dairibord Zimbabwe, with a lifetime opportunity to travel to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium.

Dairibord Zimbabwe got the rare chance after emerging winners of the Stanchart-sponsored 2015 Road to Anfield five-a-side national football tournament which was played in Harare on Saturday.

The team beat competition from 23 other teams, drawn from the bank’s stakeholders, which took part in the exciting one-day tournament. The Gibson Maponda-coached side beat Fliklink in the finals after a penalty shootout.

The match had ended in a 1-1 stalemate with Goalkeeper of the Tournament Tafadzwa Ndiyangureti spoiling what had been a superb tournament for him by missing from the spot for his side.

They will now represent the country at a regional finals in Zambia on March 21 where they will play representatives from the host country and Botswana, with the winner progressing to represent the Southern African region at Anfield tournament on May 8 — where a total 10 teams from across the Stanchart Group will battle for the Standard Chartered Trophy.

Teams that will travel to Anfield will also have a chance to meet Liverpool legends and coaches.

Dairibord captain Tawanda Kagande was ecstatic for winning the ticket to travel to Lusaka and a possible trip to Merseyside.

“I can’t express how happy we are as a group to have qualified to represent the country. For most of the guys it would be the first time to board a plane, so the feeling and the anxiety is unbelievable.

“We must thank the sponsors for giving us this opportunity and we promise that we will not disappoint. Our sights now are on Anfield.” While the tournament has been running in various Stanchart markets for the past three years and has grown very popular, it was the first time to be held in Zimbabwe.

“It was very exciting to host this fun-filled interactive campaign for our stakeholders. We had an overwhelming response from our clients and we are grateful to the professional handling of the tournament delivered by (co-ordinator) Alois Bunjira and his team,” said Stanchart head of corporate affairs Lillian Hapanyengwi.

She added: “At Stanchart, we believe in continuously improving the way we operate in response to our values. So we will always look for areas of improvement. The tournament worked towards promoting the game of football in Zimbabwe, particularly amongst our clients and we have no doubt that Dairibord will represent Zimbabwe to the best of their ability in the regional tournament in Zambia.”