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Robson Sharuko-Senior Sports Editor
IN a week dominated by football’s rejection of greed, and an All-Star cartel, it’s a pity its 2016 Olympics sweethearts were not there, to provide a powerful symbol, of the game’s romantic attachment to its roots.
The Cinderella tale scriptwriters, whose defiance of the odds has become the rallying cry, against the beast of the European Super League, which collapsed under the weight of protests, and threats from furious politicians.
Leicester City’s incredible adventure, to defy 5000-1 odds and win the English Premiership, five years ago, is one of the powerful stories which those, against the ESL, have been evoking, in their battle against the elite project.
How fitting it would have been, amid this wave of global fury, had the Mighty Warriors’ incredible tale, to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, also been used, as a powerful weapon, to fight for the cause of the lightweights.
And, of course, as a reminder, of football’s eternal fascination with its roots, where the rank outsiders can be given a chance to punch above their weight, in a classic David versus Goliath affair.
After all, on Wednesday, on the very day the ESL virtually collapsed, an event which could have evoked the memory of the Mighty Warriors, and this game’s unshakable bond with purity, took place at FIFA House in Zurich, Switzerland.
The draw for the football tournament of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, set to be held between July 21 and August 6, was held.
And, for the FIFA public relations machinery, this would have been the perfect occasion for them to remind the world of the value the underdog brings, to the table, with the Mighty Warriors providing them, with a great example.
Back in 2016, at the last Olympics in Brazil, the Mighty Warriors gave the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza, one of its finest fell-good stories, when they arrived, to feature at its football tournament.
They were one of just two African teams standing, the other being their biggest rivals, Banyana Banyana of South Africa, in what was a beautiful exhibition of the power of Southern African football.
The Mighty Warriors had, somehow, found a way to defy an expulsion from the qualifiers, when they didn’t travel to Cote d’Ivoire, as ZIFA battled a financial crunch, to then beat Cameroon, to secure a ticket to Brazil.
And, now, they could proudly take their place, among the top 12 teams in the world, with the draw throwing them into a group which featured heavyweights Germany, Canada and Australia.
Predictably, they lost all their games – 1-6 to the Germans, 1-3 to the Canadians and 1-6 to the Aussies — but that they scored, in all their matches, was hailed as a triumph of their South American adventure.
The Canadians and the Aussies were back in the draw, for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on Wednesday but, where the Mighty Warriors stood proudly, five years ago, the slot was now occupied by the Zambians.
The same Shepolopolo side, which the Mighty Warriors had beaten, on the away goals, after a 2-2 aggregate score, in the qualifiers for the 2016 Olympic Games.
And, of course, the same Shepolopolo side which inflicted a measure of revenge, on the Mighty Warriors, by hammering them 5-0, in a qualifier in Lusaka.
Then, incredibly, the Zimbabweans boycotted the reverse fixture, in Harare, over unpaid dues, on September 3, 2019, and forfeited the match 0-3, to lose 0-8, on aggregate.
Ironically, the Zambians also beat Cameroon, in the final qualifier, to book their place at the Olympics.
And, if there is a story which, in just five days, two matches and two results, captures the way the Mighty Warriors have fallen from grace, amid the chaos which has characterised women’s football in this country, then it has to be those ill-fated battles against the Zambians.
Today, in the week the draw for the Olympics football tournament was held, the Mighty Warriors kingdom now lie in ruins, destroyed by administrators who came promising to further the interest of the Girl Child, only to destroy their dreams.
The team is probably at its weakest, since it emerged as a regional force, at the turn of the millennium and, with each passing day, week and month, they are being reduced into a punching bag, and becoming an insult to their history.
They have become the mirror of the women’s game in this country, which finds itself at the crossroads, and appear to have been abandoned by those who are supposed to provide leadership, and convert its potential to success.
Given women’s football has become a constituency, which the FIFA leadership want to see real progress, the way the game has been left to rot, in this country, by those who pledged to take it to another level, is a national tragedy.
FIFA’s devotion, to see women’s football develop in leaps and bounds, across the world, is the reason why the world football governing body, specifically, gave each of their member associations US$500 000, to kick-start this key constituency, in their Covid-19 relief package, late last year.
Given the game, in this country, is still a small constituency, one would have expected that the US$500 000 injection would have been the kiss of life, which would have breathed life, into women’s football in Zimbabwe.
But, so far, the signs are not encouraging and, it appears, the game is even worse off, right now, than when that huge financial injection was pumped into its structures.
In just five years, the Mighty Warriors have slumped from being a team, which provided the world with one of its finest feel-good stories, to a forgotten side, trapped in its quagmire of mediocrity.
And, those who swore to lead them to the Promised Land, appear to have abandoned them.
That there is someone, on the ZIFA board, who was elected specifically to lead women’s football, would have been a joke, if the situation was not this tragic.
And, it’s a measure of how that sector has been abandoned, no one is being taken to task, for a lack of leadership.
The domestic game, just like their structures, appear to be in a shambles and while the world appear to making giant strides, in women’s football, the sweethearts who charmed the last Olympics, have slowly faded away from the big stage.
At their last COSAFA Championships in November last year, the Mighty Warriors failed to win even a game, or score a goal, and came home empty-ended.
Only five African countries — Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia — have ever qualified for Olympics’ women’s football tournament.
It’s difficult to imagine that, just five years after their Brazilian adventure, the Mighty Warriors have virtually disappeared, from the big stage.
Online Reporter