Mighty Warriors’ recipe for disaster

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
WITH the Mighty Warriors scheduled to begin their campaign in the All-Africa Games next month, it appears they are headed for a disaster as the team is yet to start preparing for the competition.

The qualifiers will kick-off on February 20-22 but Zimbabwe will start playing next month after receiving a bye in the first round.

The senior women’s national team will take on Ghana on the weekend of March 20-22 at home. They will then travel to Ghana on the weekend of April 10-12 for the return leg.

However, it is the state of preparedness of the team that leaves a lot to be desired as it appears nothing has been planned in terms of ensuring that the team is adequately prepared not only to participate for the sake of fulfilling their fixtures in the qualifiers but to compete for a place at the main event set for September in Congo Brazzaville.

The Zimbabwe Women Football have indicated that they are in the dark as Zifa are the ones who are responsible of the national teams and on the other hand Zifa have remained silent concerning the team’s preparations.

ZWF chairperson, Miriam Sibanda, who has expressed her displeasure at the way Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze is treating women’s football, said they are waiting for the mother-body to lead the way.

“We have done what we could do and we are waiting for some input from them (Zifa). The players are there, the national team coaches announced their (provisional) team but without sitting and getting guidance from Zifa it’s just difficult.

“The players and the technical team are ready, we are just waiting for a signal to say that this is what we are going to do,” said Sibanda.

Last year the team had been scheduled to play Tanzania in the Unity Day Challenge Cup at Rufaro as part of their preparations but the match was cancelled after Zifa indicated that they did not have resources to fund the game.

Early this year there were high hopes that the team will finally start preparing for the qualifiers when they were invited to compete in a four-nation tournament in Gaborone, Botswana. And coach Rosemary Mugadza even named a 25-member squad that was supposed to get into camp for that tournament but the event was cancelled after the organisers failed to secure two more countries to participate.

And since then nothing has been said by the national football mother-body concerning the team’s preparations for the All-Africa Games.

The Mighty Warriors are also expected to compete in the Olympic Games qualifiers that are scheduled to start in April.

Qualifying for at least one of the events will bring some comfort to a nation that has been let down by the national teams when it matters most.

Last year the senior women’s national team failed to make it for the African Women’s Championships that were played in Namibia when they fell to Zambia in what was deemed as one of the easiest draws compared to the other draws before.

They were drawn against Botswana in the first round in which they managed to win and they needed to beat Zambia in the final round but they failed.