Zimbabwean football plunged to a new low yesterday after the senior women’s national team failed to appear at their own home match where they were meant to host Zambia in a Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifier at the National Sports Stadium.
By Sports Reporter
The Mighty Warriors were trailing 0-5 following their first leg annihilation in Lusaka last week, and needed a miracle to progress to the next stage of the qualifiers.
But the home side failed to raise a team to complete the fixture after domestic league sides withdrew their players over nonpayment of appearance fees and bonuses to their players by Zifa.
The match was aborted after the Mighty Warriors failed to appear, with only the match officials and Zambia players on the pitch.
Zimbabwe will lose the tie while they are also set to be sanctioned over their failure to fulfil the fixture. Last night, Zifa president Felton Kamambo was not available for comment as was his deputy Philemon Machana, while spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela chose to hang up each time he was called.
The developments yesterday effectively mean that the Mighty Warriors, who participated at the last Olympics, are out of the next edition.
The squad also declined to camp at the Zifa Village before their trip to Zambia.
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The players are believed to have boycotted the home tie because they were not paid their dues following their participation at the Cosafa Cup, which was played in South Africa last month.
Zimbabwe reached the semifinals at the tournament, where they eventually finished third.
