adminMIGHTY Warriors coach Shadreck Mlauzi has come up with an ambitious road map ahead of the team’s appearance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It is envisaged that the national team will feature in at least four friendly games, hold a training camp in Europe, spend a month in the United States of America before departing straight for the Games that are penciled for 5 August to 21 August.
The plan titled “Mighty Warriors Action Plan” details the route the Mighty Warriors should follow, beginning as early as next week. The senior women’s team made history when they qualified for the Olympics after playing to an aggregate 2-2 draw against Cameroon, thanks to the away goals rule. The Mighty Warriors will next year take part in the African Women’s Cup of Nations qualifiers whose first round will take place in March and Zimbabwe have been drawn to play Tanzania.
In the introduction of the plan, a copy of which is in possession of the Sunday News, which Mlauzi handed over to Zimbabwe Women Football executive, he states:
“The historic feat by the girls should be harnessed and used as a springboard to usher in a dawn of a new era in which all stakeholders put aside their differences and work towards full support of the team.”
He emphasises the need to keep politics away from the team’s preparations. The programme starts with a friendly match penciled in for 28 November and Mlauzi names possible opposition as being Namibia, Zambia and South Africa, another friendly match is earmarked for 13 December with the third practice game being against Ghana on 30 January 2016.
Mlauzi lists Egypt and Tunisia as possible opponents for the fourth friendly which he hopes would be played on 27 February next year adding ZWF should ensure there is a fully functional league.
“The commencement of a fully functional league period is critical and it must kick off early February so as to enable the players to gain more competition and match fitness during games. The technical team does not wish to be dragged into factional politics of team selection,” states Mlauzi.
Mlauzi also suggests the team attends a 10-day training camp at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, South Africa in March before heading for a European training camp that would take them either to Germany, Norway or Sweden in May and in July they spend the whole month in America before departing for Rio on 31 July.
Efforts to get a comment from Zimbabwe Women Football officials were fruitless although Zifa chief executive officer, Jonathan Mashingaidze said Mlauzi and his technical had been scheduled to meet technical director, Maxwell Jongwe over the Rio preparations.
“I have not seen the document you are talking about but Mlauzi, who just returned from Zambia was scheduled to meet with the technical director (Jongwe) and present his wish list for the preparations. I believe after that meeting we can then plan the way forward. We understand the importance of preparations leading up to the Olympics as we want them to bring back the gold medal from Rio,” he said.
Mashingaidze said despite Zifa’s precarious financial position they were going all out to ensure preparations were held according to the coaches’ wish list adding they hoped to raise funds through a new initiative that has seen the country’s football governing body engaging marketing consultants, OpenMinds and a reputable accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He said the initiative will see the opening of a bank account that would be managed by PWC together with sponsors and a reputable former footballer. The account while servicing Zifa’s needs would not be handled by the body’s officials.
Online Reporter