adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
CELEBRATED former football stars have praised Coca-Cola for funding grassroots soccer, but urged Nash to weed out age-cheats who are ruining the tournament’s objectives. The Copa Coca-Cola is a premier annual grassroots football tournament aimed at identifying, nurturing and rewarding the best in young footballing talent.
Masvingo province ruled the roost at the schools’ soccer tournament held in Bulawayo at the weekend with its representatives winning the boys’ Under-16 and girls’ Under-17 titles.
Dewure High School from Gutu won the boys’ title while Chidyamakono of Chivi were crowned the girls’ champions.
One of Highlanders’ most successful captains Dazzy Kapenya and the ex-Zimbabwe Saints and Warriors’ duo of Agent Sawu and Ronald “Gidiza” Sibanda said the boys’ tourney produced good football.
They concurred that talent was abound at grassroots level, provided the players that participated in the just-ended competition used their correct ages.
“We saw some good goals, individual skills and I must say potential is there for big teams to tap into. The only issue that worried me is that of age-cheating. Some of the boys looked older than the ages of their opponents, thereby killing the spirit of the competition,” said Kapenya.
“Even when it comes to progress, some of the boys identified disappear into oblivion because they wouldn’t have used the correct ages. During discussions we held with the other guys, they felt Nash should invest in a machine to detect players’ ages.”
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is now used the world over to scan the wrist plate of players to accurately ascertain their true age as birth certificates are often either falsified or unavailable.
According to a medical source, an MRI scan costs about $150,000.
Arthur Maphosa, Nash deputy president, said his organisation once contemplated investing in an MRI scan following numerous age-cheating incidents.
“As an organisation, the issue of age-cheating worries us because it defies the whole purpose of fair play as others want to win at all costs,” said Maphosa. Nash tried to introduce stringent vetting requirements by demanding original Grade 7 result slips and birth certificates to verify ages, but some schools only brought players’ passports, and as such, Nash did not disqualify them from participating in the tournament.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter