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This trip afforded members of the media an opportunity to have a feel of the facilities including the artificial turf at Rufaro Stadium and the Zifa Village.
They also toured Zifa headquarters in the Harare city centre.
Zifa communications manager Nicky Moyo-Dhlamini accompanied the journalists on the tour.
The highlight was a no holds-barred question and answer session with Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze. What was apparent was that most had never been to the three venues or met Dube and Mashingaidze.
At the Zifa Village Mashingaidze gave a brief overview to the idea behind the Fifa funded project.
“We are trying to create a friendly camping environment for our national teams. We want a place that is far from the madding crowd where players can relax and train and we are also looking at cutting on hotel costs,” he said.
He thereafter handed over the journalists to architects Irene Masiyanise and Abel Mandizvidva of MMA Architects who explained technicalities that were involved in the refurbishment of the village and how it will look when complete.
“We were given a $438 000 budget which we were supposed to work with to refurbish and upgrade the Zifa Village into a lodge,” said Masiyanise.
Upon completion, the facility will boast of a gymnasium, sleeping quarters, restaurant and a conference centre.
The Zifa Village is under the Goal Project Phase Three and if completed, will go a long way in easing the the national teams’ camping headaches for Zifa.
Zifa president Dube went on to tackle the reporters’ questions and when asked about his executive’s attitude towards Asiagate given the forces involved he said:
“We are not intimidated by anything and the fact is we will get to the bottom of Asiagate and Centralgate scandals. We are in fact close to concluding our investigations.
“As for the in-fighting within the board it will not stop until we flush out the rot within,” he said.
He also touched on his desire to spread soccer to all the corners of Zimbabwe.
After lunch there was a social soccer match pitting the scribes against a Zifa Select.
Midlands based Paul Mundandi scored the only goal for the scribes as they narrowly lost 2-1.
Dube said that the idea behind the trip was to afford the reporters an opportunity to visit Zifa facilities as well as meet the officials they always write about.
The Zifa boss said the trip had gone a long way in clearing wrong perceptions of both Zifa and journalists regarding their relations. He said he hoped a new chapter had been opened following the tour.
Online Reporter