adminRicky Zililo and Jillian Shava
THE stage is set for the country’s biggest secondary schools football festival, the Copa Coca-Cola national finals, to be held in Bulawayo this weekend.
Twenty-four teams from the country’s 10 provinces will battle it out in the Under-16 boys and Under-17 girls’ categories of the annual grassroots football tournament aimed at identifying, nurturing and rewarding the best young footballing talent.
The boys’ category is in its 26th edition while the girls’ tournament is in its fifth year.
Boys’ group matches will be played at Bulawayo’s ceremonial home of soccer — Barbourfields Stadium while the girls’ competition will be at Gifford and Mzilikazi High schools.
Finals for both the girls’ and boys’ categories are set for Sunday morning at Barbourfields.
John Nzima, Bulawayo Nash head-in-charge of football, said the City of Kings is ready for the schools’ soccer festival.
“We’re looking forward to a great tournament. Everything is set and we’re ready to welcome our guests. Teams will be arriving tomorrow with the games starting on Saturday morning. We’re asking the Bulawayo community to come and support the future stars. Tomorrow’s stars are born from such competitions,” said Nzima.
To ensure top-level officiating, Nzima said they had engaged Zifa accredited referees to handle the tournament.
Mzilikazi High School, winners of the inaugural edition of the tournament in 1989, will not be participating after being knocked out during the provincial finals.
Bulawayo’s hopes in the boys’ category would be carried by provincial champions Mpopoma High and Gifford, who qualified by virtue of being the host school.
Both schools are confident of making it to the final and it remains to be seen whether they will wrest the title away from defending champions Chemhanza High of Wedza, Mashonaland East.
Mpopoma have the bulk of their players turning out for Premiership title contenders Chicken Inn juniors, Bantu Rovers and Mpumelelo FC.
Memories of their disqualification from the 2010 finals held in Masvingo will spur the Bulawayo champions to fight for the title.
“The boys are raring to go. They want to win and judging by their performances at training, they really mean business.
“We told them how most of our players were disqualified back in 2010, leaving us with just 11 players to compete at the national finals with no substitutes. That seemed to motivate the boys and they want to show that it wasn’t luck that got us through to the national finals, but sheer determination to succeed,” said Mpopoma sports director James Rugwevera.
Mpopoma is in Group A with Rujeko High of Marondera and Mutare Boys High.
They will need a win and a draw to proceed to the quarter-finals.
Besides the Bulawayo champions, other schools expected to put on a strong title fight in the boys’ category include Chemhanza, Matabeleland North champions Tsholotsho High and How Mine Secondary, whose players are in the development teams of Premiership teams.
Chemhanza are lucky to be defending their title after being fined $9,000 for age-cheating in 2014, and would be hoping to put that scandal behind them and win a third consecutive Copa Coca-Cola title.
As part of combating age-cheating, Nash has imposed a fine of $500 for each player found to be overage, and all players are required to bring their Grade 7 result slips, in addition to birth certificates and squad pictures from zonal level.
There are rare cases of age cheating in the girls’ category where defending champions Chidyamakono from Chivi in Masvingo province are firm favourites.
The Masvingo school will face stiff challenges from Matabeleland South’s Selonga Secondary, Sodbury Secondary from Mashonaland West and Bulawayo champions Magwegwe High.
Magwegwe have maintained a bulk of the players that took them to the 2014 national finals in Harare and would be hoping their experience drives them through to the final.
Nash vice-president Arthur Maphosa said the tournament continued to churn out talented players, some of whom have gone on to play professional football abroad.
A number of footballers that went on to play at the highest level include the legendary former Warriors’ captain Peter Ndlovu, ex-Highlanders midfielder Johannes Ngodzo, Ovidy Karuru, Alois Bunjira, goalkeeper Washington Arubi, Harlington Shereni, who plied his trade in France, and FC Platinum winger Walter Musona, who has been on trials in Europe.
“We’ve been in this marriage with Coca-Cola since 1989 and are still growing strong. Copa Coca-Cola has done a lot in terms of providing enriching experiences for our children.
“They continue to support the development of sports for children. Every year, Copa Coca-Cola grows bigger and better and I expect the players this year to rise to the challenge,” Maphosa said.
Copa Coca-Cola national final full draw
Boys
Group A: Rujeko, Mpopoma, Mutare Boys
Group B: Prince Edward, Chemhanza, Nemakonde
Group C: Dewure, Guinea Fowl, Gifford
Group D: Tsholotsho, How Mine, Bernard Mizeki
Girls
Group A: Furamera, Selonga, Chidyamakono
Group B: Sodbury, Mwenezi, Seke 1
Group C: Zumba, Montrose, Dinyane
Group D: Saint Francis, Magwegwe, Nyamauru.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu