News / National
Mighty Warriors in no show at home to Zambia
01 Sep 2019 at 20:24hrs | Views
A national embarrassment unfolded at the National Sports Stadium this afternoon after the Mighty Warriors did not pitch up for their scheduled Olympic qualifier against Zambia.
A national team's failure to fulfill a home fixture will go down as one of the greatest catastrophe's in Zimbabwean football.
A small crowd had turned up to support their teams, the paramedics were ready to do duty, and Zambia sent out their team to warm up.
Missing though were the Mighty Warriors whose camp plunged into turmoil on Saturday evening.
"Some clubs went to Zifa Village yesterday evening and withdrew their players. I can confirm that Black Rhinos Queens, Blue Swallows and Correctional Queens who have the large bulk of players in the team withdrew them leaving us with the crisis that we have today," said the Zifa Communications and Competitions Manager Xolisani Gwesela.
While Zifa wrote to Fifa requesting for the game to be pushed forward to Monday (tomorrow), Zambia appeared intent on the game being registered as a walkover as was suggested by celebrations that followed their warm up.
Given the expectation of an entertaining fixture, Zambia's Ambassador to Zimbabwe Emmanuel Chenda was disappointed by what had transpired.
"It is a huge disappointment having come expecting an exciting game only to realise Zimbabwe will not be coming. 5-0 is a scoreline I believe could have been overturned because anything can happen in football so it is so sad that it had to happen this way," he said.
Also, equally disappointed were the fans who have never gone through the experience of a national team not reporting for duty on home soil.
Events at the National Sports Stadium could further alienate the Zifa from the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) who recently wrote to Fifa requesting for the removal of the current leadership and the installation of a normalisation committee.
That request may have been rejected by Fifa but the local football governing body and the SRC are expected to be at loggerheads in the coming days.
A national team's failure to fulfill a home fixture will go down as one of the greatest catastrophe's in Zimbabwean football.
A small crowd had turned up to support their teams, the paramedics were ready to do duty, and Zambia sent out their team to warm up.
Missing though were the Mighty Warriors whose camp plunged into turmoil on Saturday evening.
"Some clubs went to Zifa Village yesterday evening and withdrew their players. I can confirm that Black Rhinos Queens, Blue Swallows and Correctional Queens who have the large bulk of players in the team withdrew them leaving us with the crisis that we have today," said the Zifa Communications and Competitions Manager Xolisani Gwesela.
Given the expectation of an entertaining fixture, Zambia's Ambassador to Zimbabwe Emmanuel Chenda was disappointed by what had transpired.
"It is a huge disappointment having come expecting an exciting game only to realise Zimbabwe will not be coming. 5-0 is a scoreline I believe could have been overturned because anything can happen in football so it is so sad that it had to happen this way," he said.
Also, equally disappointed were the fans who have never gone through the experience of a national team not reporting for duty on home soil.
Events at the National Sports Stadium could further alienate the Zifa from the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) who recently wrote to Fifa requesting for the removal of the current leadership and the installation of a normalisation committee.
That request may have been rejected by Fifa but the local football governing body and the SRC are expected to be at loggerheads in the coming days.
Source - zbc
