City use Cup to gauge squad for topflight

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

PREMIER Soccer League returnees Bulawayo City FC will use the Champion of Champions Regions Cup to gauge their squad for the topflight.

Winners of the four Zifa Division One League regions, Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern, will clash in the inaugural tournament to be played over two days at Masvingo’s Mucheke Stadium on December 21 and 22.

Southern Region champions City were drawn against Eastern Region winners Tenax in the semi-finals, with Northern Region’s Cranborne Bullets squaring off against Central Region champions Whawha.

City had broken camp, but held a training session yesterday in preparation for the tournament.

Try Ncube, the City coach, is excited at the prospects of playing against other regional champions.

“We are excited about this opportunity of playing against the best, which makes it more of a champions league. We started training today, having recalled players who had gone for holidays,” said Ncube.

“We understand the importance of this tournament and besides competing for silverware, we are presented with a chance to assess which areas to strengthen. After the tournament, we will have a three-week break before starting preparations for the big boys’ league,” he said.

The semi-final winners will face off in the final on December 22, with the losing semi-finalists playing as curtain raisers.

Thomas Marambanyika, an official from the Zifa Central Region and member of the Champion of Champions Regions Cup organising committee, said they had sourced medals for the winners, but teams will bear their own travelling and accommodation expenses.

“No sponsor has been secured so far for the tournament, which means the teams will foot their own expenses, with the regions taking care of other match related costs like referees and police fees as well as ground rentals. Our hope is to get sponsors once they see how organised we are and maybe from next year, since this will be an annual event, we will have backers,” said Marambanyika.

A rotational system is being used for the Champion of Champions Regions Cup, with Southern Region set to host the 2020 edition, Central Region providing the venue in 2021 and Northern Region in 2022. – @ZililoR