adminDumisani Nsingo Senior Reporter
SPORTS, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa says he will ensure that the hosting of all national sporting activities especially football was spread across the country. In a recent interview, Langa said when he was sworn into office as the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture one of his pledges was to ensure that sport was promoted and developed throughout the country and one such way of achieving that was ensuring that national teams competed with visiting nations at different parts of the country.
To that effect Langa said he was going to instruct Zifa to ensure that some of the Warriors matches were played at Bulawayo’s Barbourfields Stadium.
“I know we are going to be playing Malawi, Swaziland and Guinea at home. I am going to direct Zifa to ensure that one of the games is played at BF and the other one possibly at Mandava, because it (Mandava) also meets international standards. But I can assure you that the return leg against Malawi will be played at BF,” Langa said.
He said football played a unifying factor in the country and as such it was of paramount importance to alternate the venues to host international matches so that people from various parts of the country re-ignited their passion for national teams.
“I want us to spread these games across the country. International matches are not only meant for Harare but should be hosted in other cities or towns as well because we don’t want to create the impression that a certain team belongs to a particular city. A national team should drum up its support from all and sundry in the country,” said Langa.
He said one of the reasons why the country’s most famous national football team remains “The Dream”, which was coached by the late Reinard Fabisch was due to the fact that it drew support right across the country and this spurred it to play attractive soccer and registered famous wins against formidable sides such as Cameroon, Egypt and Guinea.
The famous Dream Team was made up of the likes of Bruce Grobbelar, the late Francis Shonhayi, Ephraim Chawanda, the late Adam Ndlovu, Peter Ndlovu, the late Benjamin Nkonjera, Agent Sawu, Willard Mashinkila Khumalo, the late Mercedes Sibanda, Vitalis Takawira and Henry McKop among others.
“I, however, call upon people to come and rally behind their national teams in numbers in the event the games are played in their area. People should bear in mind that a win by any national team is not glory to the participants but the entire nation,” Langa said.
Online Reporter