adminSenior Sports Reporter
A GROUP of businesspeople from Beitbridge have embarked on a drive to revive Border Strikers FC who were fired from the Zifa Central Region Division One Soccer League for failing to fulfil matches in 2012. They will be a meeting this evening at the Beitbridge District Club. Organisers are eager to have the community’s buy-in into the project.
In a telephone interview from the border town yesterday, Border Strikers FC board of trustees chairman Maxwell Ngwenya said about 10 local businessmen had pledged support.
He said they could not fold their arms and let a “brand” like Border Strikers FC die a natural death.
“We discovered as the local community that Border Strikers FC is a brand name that has so much history not only in Beitbridge but Matabeleland South and Southern Region football. As local businesspeople of Beitbridge we couldn’t let Border Strikers FC die, be forgotten or even thrown in the dustbins of history,” said Ngwenya.
After the collapse of former Premiership clubs Underhill and Tripple B, Ngwenya said the border town has been starved of quality entertainment through football. In 2012 and 2013 Beitbridge’s Dulibadzimu Stadium played host to some Premier Soccer League games as well as cup competitions.
“As much as there is a hive of activity since it’s a border town, the community here loves football and it is football entertainment which they are missing that we are bringing back because there isn’t much in terms of sports entertainment. We desire to have Border Strikers FC becoming one of the forces to reckon with in local football.
“We understand that it is expensive to run a football club nowadays without the backing of the corporate world so this meeting is meant to bring the sport loving people of Beitbridge together so that we brainstorm and find the best way for the team to succeed. We have ideas but they need the community’s buy-in so that the business ventures of Border Strikers FC succeed,” Ngwenya said.
About a dozen businesspeople who include former chairman Hosea Muleya are behind the revival of Border Strikers FC.
Former Tripple B secretary-general Gibson Makhanda, himself a former Border Strikers FC player is also part of the ambitious crew that wants to bring back topflight football action to Beitbridge.
“As the local business community we are the potential sponsors of the club and we want the community to have a buy-in into the club as we revive it. What we want is to bring glory to the border town because we feel there is abundant talent that is not exposed to topflight soccer.
“In terms of recruitment, we have defunct teams in Beitbridge and there are some of our players keeping busy at other clubs so mobilisation of a squad won’t be a problem,” said Ngwenya.
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