Zimbabwe Supporters will accompany the Warriors to Botswana for a match to mark Botswana Independence Day celebrations on 30 September 2023.
By Godwin Makoho
Zimbabwe Soccer supporters are ecstatic that international football has returned and are ready to rally behind the players, technical staff and football administrators, in their quest to see Zimbabwean football scaling dizzy heights.
FIFA suspended Zimbabwe from international football in February 2022 after the world football governing body adjudged the country to have flouted the FIFA regulations.
Following the recent lifting of the FIFA ban on Zimbabwe and the appointment of the Normalisation Committee (NC) a number of developments aimed at restoring sanity in Zimbabwe Football have sailed through, and this has given the hope for a successful football future.
The NC has up to June 2024 to create structures and restore order in the beleaguered Zimbabwe Football Association.
To date, they have appointed part of the staff to execute the restructuring exercise, with the latest being the appointment of the senior national soccer team coaches for both the Warriors and Mighty Warriors.
The soccer supporters, who have been starved of international football for almost 2 years are happy that football is back and are ready to work with all stakeholders for the development of the game.
In an interview with Newsreel Zimbabwe, the president of Friends of Warriors, Zivanai Muwashu expressed happiness on the football developments since the lifting of the FIFA ban.
“We are happy that football is back after the Fifa ban and for a start it is good to have players selected on merit as witnessed from the selection of Brito and his crew,” he said.
“Before the ban our soccer team was under the control of people who did not select players on merit but on questionable basis. You could find a player without club being selected to the national team and you wonder how did they come up with such decision,” said Mr Muwashu.
Muwashu believes Zimbabwe has quality players who can win continental trophies given adequate support from all football stakeholders.
“Right now Zimbabwe has a lot of foreign based players who are eligible to play in the national team and I bet if we have a good coach, and adequate support from all relevant stakeholders, we can lift the African Cup of Nations Cup,” said Muwashu.
Adomsi Mukwasi, a member of Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association also said he was happy with the appointments and developments taking place.
“We are waiting for the forthcoming games so that we can start evaluate them but as of now we are happy our football is back,” said Mukwasi.There is however belief that the NC should fill all the vacant posts for efficient administration of the game.
Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association, Richard Sande, popularly known as “CheMhofela”, raised concerns with the delays in appointment of the full technical staff.”
“There is no way we can go forward without good backroom staff which can back up the head coach. I believe we should have new team manager instead of giving a blind eye to it,” said Sande.”
It is good for a start to have a select from different clubs like what Brito did but there is need for backroom staff,” added Sande.
Muwashu also echoed the same sentiments saying the appointment of the team Manager and his full support staff deserved top priority.
The NC appointed only the Warriors coach and his assistants last week but has remained coy on the appointment of the team manager and other supporting stuff.
In a statement last week, NC said the selection process of the remaining posts was ongoing and called for patience.
Baltemar José de Oliveira Brito was appointed the Warriors coach and went straight into action, assembling a squad to play Botswana on September 30 in Gaborone as part of the country’s independence day celebrations.
The Friends of the Warriors said the supporters bus going to Botswana will depart Harare on September 29.
“We are going to have a bus which departs on Friday in support of our team, we need to see our football going forward,” said Muwashu.
