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Grace Chingoma Harare Bureau
THE Mighty Warriors were last night still making frantic efforts to try and travel to Cote d’Ivoire for the first leg of their 2016 Olympic Games qualifier with authorities battling to secure funding for the trip.
The match is set for tomorrow.
The team was initially scheduled to travel yesterday morning to Johannesburg and connect to the West African country later in the day.
But, by late last night, the Mighty Warriors were still in Harare with Zifa officials struggling to raise $34,000 required for the airfares.
There were reports they could travel at dawn.
Acting chairperson of Zimbabwe Women’s Football, Elizabeth Langa, last night said they don’t have any confirmation and were just praying for a miracle.
“We can’t lose faith, especially if you are a leader. We are just praying that something will come up.
“We’ve delegated each other to some offices of well-wishers but now it’s a bit late and some of the people have already gone for the weekend but we’re still running around.
“The chief executive (Jonathan Mashingaidze) has been dealing with the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture and I’m at some offices meeting some people.
“We don’t have anything at the moment and really I can’t even say whether the team will travel via South Africa or Nairobi as there is nothing at the moment,” she said.
Zimbabwe Women Football board member Cecilia Gambe said she was busy in some meetings over the trip. The team, which staged a sit-in on Tuesday in protest for their allowances dating back to last year, yesterday spent the whole day at the Zifa Village waiting for information as to when they would be travelling.
Zifa president Cuthbert Dube said he could not continue funding the teams when he was being attacked in the media. He said he has in the past chartered a number of flights for the Warriors and even paid for their commercial flights.
“The culture of the country must change and we need a paradigm shift and try and show some gratitude.
“If there are heroes for doing good for this country, I might also feature among the heroes,” said Dube, during the official launch of the Soccer Coaches’ Union of Zimbabwe.
Sidumisile Mabena