Online Reporter
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
NEWLY-PROMOTED outfit, FC Hunters, have dismissed social media rumours that they intend to sell their franchise to Northern Region Premiership promotion failures, N’ombeyaora – insisting that they are already preparing for a more challenging 2026 top-flight league season.
FC Hunters reportedly decided to sell their Premiership franchise to the Pedzai ‘Scott’ Sakupwanya-owned N’ombeyaora, at least according to widely circulated social media messages that surprised many in domestic football circles.
N’ombeyaora led the race for promotion for most of the season in the Northern Region Soccer League, but were stopped in their tracks on the final day of the campaign by MWOS U-19.
The misleading social media messages purported that N’ombeyaora, who ironically call themselves The Hunters, will be promoted to the country’s top-flight via the Eastern Region slot. However, in an interview this week, FC Hunters owner, Andrew Gore, vehemently denied the reports, saying social media rarely says anything truthful.
“Do you really believe most of the things that you read on social media? Do you think when we decide to sell our club we can choose to disseminate the information through social media?
“Social media, to me, rarely says anything truthful apart from sensationalising issues and misleading people. We have not decided to sell our club to anyone, not at any stage have we decided to do that, even in our wildest imaginations,” said Gore.
The Marondera-based tobacco farmer, who single-handedly bankrolled FC Hunters to its Premiership promotion, said they are focusing on preparing for Premiership football.
“If anything, we are preparing for life in the Premier League and our preparations are well on course. When we make any decision, we have the rightful channels to speak to our fans and the public in general,” said Gore.
As they say, the thrill of the hunt is not in the kill, but in the challenge, the preparation, and the chase!
So has been the hunt for football glory that Marondera-based Eastern Region Division One side FC Hunters since 2020 when the ambitious club was formed from a mere social soccer outfit meant for tobacco farm workers.
The challenge that lay before them, their preparations and their chase were made easy by the passionate commitment to the club’s cause of their financier – Gore.
FC Hunters was formed officially on March 20, 2020 by the commercial farmer, and was registered with ZIFA Mashonaland East Division Two that year. They managed to pull through to the Eastern Region Division One in 2022.
In the Eastern Region Division One debut season, FC Hunters ended the season on a respectable seventh position, and in 2024 they finished on an impressive fourth position.
To their credit, in 2024, FC Hunters were duly named the region’s most improved team of the year at the annual Eastern Region end of season awards.
At the end of 2025, FC Hunters are in the Promised Land!
