Nash U-20 tourney begins

Sports Reporter
THE National Association of Secondary School Heads Under-20 football tournament takes off today in most of the country’s 10 provinces as they hold their zonal competitions.

This year’s tournament got a timely boost with Proton Bakery and Surrey Group coming on board with a sponsorship package of $5 000.

The NASH tournament, which is an annual event, will see schools from across the country battling it out to earn their places at the national finals in Masvingo from October 6 to 8. And, for most provinces, the battle begins today with the zonal competitions.

Winners will progress to the district competition scheduled for September 22 before going for the provincial finals which will culminate in the national finals next month. However, Bulawayo will have their provincial finals on September 22 while Mashonaland West will have theirs on September 30.

Nash national head in charge of football, Albert Mucheka, implored the participants to adhere to the rules and regulations of the tournament by fielding the correct age-group. “We expect all our games to be played according to the rules and regulations of the tournament, adhering to the age stipulated.

“We are dealing with Under-20 and we expect only those with national identity cards to compete. The idea being that we want the people of the same age group to compete. Vetting should take place because what we want is people to adhere to the regulations from the zonals to national level,” said Mucheka.

Mucheka said the coming in of Proton and Surrey is a positive development for the tournament that had been running without a sponsor over the past years.

“As Nash we just got a sponsor, Proton and Surrey and we expect people to do their competitions strictly according to the laid down rules and regulations so that we remain with our sponsor and ensure they have something to play for.

“The Under-20 has done quite a lot, in the past that was the age-group sponsored by Coca-Cola before they moved to younger age-groups and it produced players like Peter Ndlovu and Washington Arubi.

“We believe it has done a lot in producing players who have played locally and internationally. “The fact that we had no sponsor, it was a drawback for us and the coming in of Proton and Surrey is a good thing for us.

We hope it will contribute to the development of football,” said Mucheka.

The sponsorship was unveiled early last month with the winners set to get $800 while the runners-up will walk away with $500.