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BULAWAYO Athletics Club will tomorrow play host to the Southern Region May Day Five-a-Side soccer tournament which will also mark the beginning of the 2014 season. Sports enthusiasts will see at least 10 teams battle it out in the local competition. In an interview with Chronicle Sport, national five-a-side vice chairman Shepherd Mupemba said all was set for the tournament which was part of their initiative to revive the sport which was last played in 2012 when the Zimbabwe national five-aside team bowed out of the Futsal World Cup qualifiers following their 3-5 aggregate loss to South Africa.
After the World Cup qualifiers, hopes were high that the sport, which seemed to have attracted many, would see domestic matches getting underway.
Most of the players that represented Zimbabwe at the Futsal World Cup qualifiers were drawn from Bulawayo and Harare who had running leagues last year.
“We have eight teams that have registered for the tournament and we expected at least four clubs to join the rest on the day of the tournament. Registration is only $20 per team and it is our hope that more will come so that we have a fruitful competition.
“This tournament is meant to see whether clubs are prepared to play league matches and soon after this competition we will start our league matches. In our meeting with the rest of the national executive it was agreed that we have the Northern and the Southern Region leagues having 12 teams each. The top four teams from each region will at the end of the year play in a top eight competition whose winner will be declared national champions,” said Mupemba.
Teams that have registered for tomorrow’s competition which starts at 10AM are Fox FC, Amabhubesi, Nust, Munyoro United, Khalanyoni, Far East Bombers, St Andrews and Ampha.
Some of the clubs that once affiliated to the Southern Region who are expected to participate in tomorrow’s competition are Binga United, Torronto, Wangu-Wangu, ALCC, Bovvisa and ShuShine.
Online Reporter