NATIONAL senior women football’s team, the Mighty Warriors are potentially two matches away from the 2016 Rio Olympics finals after their third round opponents Ivory Coast withdrew from the qualifiers.
BY HENRY MHARA
The two teams were set to clash in a rescheduled third round second leg match at Rufaro Stadium tomorrow, but Fifa yesterday informed Zifa that the West Africans had formally withdrawn from the tie, giving the Mighty Warriors the passage to the final qualifying round.
The match was initially rescheduled to take place on August 2, but had been deferred to tomorrow after the Ivory Coast team failed to pitch up.
“Fifa has written to us informing that Ivory Coast has formally withdrawn from the qualifier and by a way of consequence, our team is automatically qualified for the final round,” Zifa women football administrator Theresa Maguraushe said yesterday.
“They, however, want assurances from us that we will be able to fulfil the two fixtures in the last round. That assurance is wanted by not later than August 24, which is Monday next week,” she added.
The Mighty Warriors will now meet Cameroon in the final round qualifier in October for a slot to Rio next year. Only two teams from Africa will qualify for the finals and the other final qualifying match will see South Africa playing Equatorial Guinea.
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Zimbabwe has a great chance to qualify to the finals as they travel to Yaoundé first for the first leg on the weekend of August 2-4 before hosting the decisive second round leg match two weeks later.
The third round tie’s troubles started when the Mighty Warriors failed to travel to Ivory Coast for the first leg, which attracted a $10 000 fine and a forfeited match with a 3-0 scoreline.
Then Ivory Coast also failed to travel to Harare for the second leg, and curiously, no sanctions were imposed on them for failing to show up. This development will see the Mighty Warriors tearing camp and possibly regroup towards October.
