Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Acting Sports Editor
MOBILE telecommunications provider NetOne will reportedly bankroll the inaugural Division One champion of champions tournament that will feature the country’s four regional winners.
Army side Cranborne Bullets will represent the Northern Region, Tenax shall be flying the Eastern Region flag, Whawha Prisons emerged as Central Region winners while Bulawayo City will represent the Southern Region.
“We don’t want to jump the gun in terms of the total package or identity of the tournament sponsor except to say it’s a mobile telecommunications company. Preparations are going on well and we hope to announce the dates soon,” said a source.
Meanwhile, the Southern Region has defended its decision to present regional winners Bulawayo City with a Cosafa Trophy while parading the floating shield in Hwange where Makomo was playing host to then title contenders Talen Vision.
“We will have people who always like to raise dust out of nothing. That 1999 Cosafa trophy is in our archives and we had to do a mock trophy presentation exercise because the real shield was in Hwange, who were the 2018 winners and coincidentally we had one of the title contenders, Talen Vision playing their last game there so we agreed to have that shield stay there because in any case had Vision won their game and City lost here in Bulawayo, they would have been crowned champions,” said Zifa board member responsible for fixtures Fiso Siziba.
Siziba said the Shield has since been officially handed over to the rightful winners, Bulawayo City.
“If we had resources, we might have had to hire a helicopter to shuttle the Shield between Hwange and Bulawayo but that wasn’t possible, we just had to do a mock presentation here in Bulawayo and let the original Shield be paraded in Hwange,” said Siziba.
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