adminRay Bande Senior Sports Reporter
TRIUMPHANT Mighty Warriors, who have now secured a berth at the Rio Olympics as well as the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations finals, deserve more for their efforts, Women Soccer League board member competitions, Cecilia Gambe has said.
The Mighty warriors sealed their passage to the 2016 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations with another stunning win over Zambia at the Nkoloma Stadium in the final qualifier.
The Mighty Warriors will be among the eight teams taking part at the finals to be held in Cameroon at the end the year.
Interestingly, the Mighty Warriors last qualified for Women’s Afcon finals in 2004 when they ended their campaign in the group stages in South Africa.
Match reports from Zambia indicated that Mighty Warriors defender, Lynett Mutokuto handled inside the box leading to referee Nasikko Semambo pointing to the spot and Shepolopolo forward, Misozi Zulu confidently stepped forward and converted to tie the score at two-all, but Zimbabwe still enjoyed the 3-2 aggregate advantage hence the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualification.
This feat comes hard on the heels of yet another milestone for the senior women national soccer team after they qualified for the Rio Olympics.
Such is the impressive accomplishment by the girl child that has apparently gone unnoticed and little appreciation from different sectors, hence the call by outspoken Gambe to recognise the achievements of the Mighty Warriors.
Prior to the announcement this week that Net-One would be partnering the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors as well as the annunciation that Zifa president will give a residential stand to each member of the Mighty Warriors, the senior women national team members had only received $10 000 from the Zifa president’s personal coffers, $6 000 from the Minister of Sports and Recreation, the $200 per player from Prophet Walter Magaya and the luncheon hosted for them by Harare mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni.
This is the kind of remuneration that Gambe believes is tantamount to gender discrimination.
“If the achievements that were made by the girls had been done by the senior men national team we would have seen more contributions from different sectors.
“Now that it is the girl child, no one wants to chip in and reward them for the sterling effort. We are talking about girls that went to play a good number of matches without any remuneration.
“They soldiered on irrespective of the hardships that they faced along the way because there was nothing to show for their efforts. It is high time as a nation that we learn to appreciate the good things that fellow countrymen do. Look at what DRC did for their team when they won Chan tournament.
“For how many more years are we going to expect these women to do us proud while we do not look at their plight,” said Gambe.
In a telephone interview from Harare on Wednesday, ZIFA chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, concurred with Gambe saying more really needs to be done to motivate the girls.
“It is true, we really owe those girls. They have done us proud as a nation and achieved what we have not achieved as a nation in a long time. It is not only about ZIFA, but for us all as a nation after all when the Mighty Warriors go to Rio they will be representing the nation as well as the region at large.
“The same goes when they go to represent the nation in the 2016 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations. We really need to support them as a nation. They deserve more,” he said.
Gambe hailed the technical department led by Shadreck Mlauzi, saying they had instilled a great sense of discipline.
“I am really happy with what Shadreck Mlauzi and his technical department have done. They have managed to instil a great sense of discipline.
“I remember we were attacked left, right and centre when we relieved former coach, Rose Mugadza of her duties. People thought that we were wrong, but we knew what we were doing.
“I even remember there was a time that we went to check on the Mighty Warriors training only to find out that she (Mugadza) had gone to town leaving Ndega Matsika alone with the girls. The things were being done haphazardly. I have no doubt that we could not have come this far with the former technical department members in place,” she said.
The Sakubva-born veteran football administrator said the Mighty Warriors needed a month-long camp in a country near Brazil before the start of the Rio Olympic Games in order for them to acclimatise with the weather conditions as well as diet in South America.
Gambe noted that there is also need for sound preparations punctuated by friendly matches against formidable opponents..
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