FORMER Motor Action Football Club owner, Eric Rosen has died.
BY HENRY MHARA
He was 69.
Rosen passed away at Borrowdale Trauma Centre in Harare yesterday morning.
His wife, Lizzy confirmed the death yesterday, before adding that burial arrangements were still to be made.
“He suffered a heart attack and passed away at 10am today (yesterday),” the sobbing Lizzy said.
“We are still organising the burial arrangements and we will let you know in due course.”
Rosen was the owner of Motor Action FC, which competed in the Premier Soccer League for 14 years, from 2000 before its collapse due to financial problems.
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Motor Action’s history is lauded with achievements including winning the league title in 2010, the 2011 BancABC Sup8r Cup and the 2005 Silver Jubilee Independence Trophy, ranking it as one of the great clubs in the new millennium.
A football fanatic, together with his wife, Rosen died at a time he was in the process of establishing a football academy at Motor Action Sports Club in Harare.
Former Motor Action FC chief of protocol, Simeone Jamanda, who worked closely with Rosen throughout the team’s run said he was shattered by the death. He reckons the football fraternity has lost one of the greatest administrators.
“I’m shocked and distressed. He was my best friend. He is the one who taught me football, in terms of administration in a professional way. I worked with him from the time Motor Action was formed, when he bought the Blackpool franchise in 2000 and I can say he was a straight-forward person, who wanted everything to be done by the book. He gave me courage and faith.”
“His death is a huge loss to football. We have lost a dedicated man who sacrificed all his wealth to furthering the game. He bankrolled the team by himself and introduced professionalism and I don’t remember players getting their salaries at the stadium, but they would be paid through the right channels – at the bank. The fact that he died while in a process of establishing an academy means it’s a blow to the young children, who was going to enroll there. We will greatly miss him,” Jamanda said.
Rosen is survived by wife Lizzy and three children – Sydney, Allister and Merlyn.
Mourners are gathered at house number 64 Glen Lorne Drive in Glen Lorne, Harare.
