What it really takes to put Zimbabwe on the pitch

Inside ZIFA
Nqobile Magwizi

BY the time 11 players walk onto the pitch wearing the colours of Zimbabwe, most of the hard work has already happened.

The teams emerge from the tunnel, the national anthem plays, the flag rises and millions of Zimbabweans, at home and abroad, turn their attention to those 11 players standing together for their country.

For the supporter, that is where the match begins. For the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), it is the culmination of a long and demanding journey behind the scenes — and, almost immediately, the beginning of another one.

As we enter another busy period of international football, there is an important question worth putting into perspective: What does it actually take to put a Zimbabwean national team on the pitch?

The answer is far more than most people ever get to see.

The projected budget for our current national-team programmes is approximately US$2,2 million. That is not the cost of 90 minutes of football. It is the cost of making those 90 minutes possible.

Every time one of our national teams takes to the field, there is an entire operation behind it.

The Warriors, Mighty Warriors, Young Warriors and our other national teams have to travel. Players must be brought together from clubs in Zimbabwe and across the world.

Training camps have to be arranged. Accommodation, meals, local transport, medical care, equipment, playing kits and technical support all have to be provided.

Then there are the less visible requirements: passports and travel documents, visas, insurance, player welfare, match administration, venue requirements and countless logistical details that will never appear in a highlights package.

Even refereeing and match-official requirements form part of that wider picture.

African football presents its own unique challenges and our opening AFCON 2027 qualifier against Sierra Leone is a perfect example.

The match will be played in Morocco because Sierra Leone does not have a CAF-approved stadium available for the fixture. Think about that for a moment.

It is an away match for Zimbabwe, yet it is being played in a third country.

Our players, coaches, officials and support staff still have to get there and prepare properly to compete.

That is the reality of the international game we have chosen to compete in. It demands ambition, but ambition has to be supported by serious resources.

Thankfully, there is also reason for optimism.

After years in which Zimbabwe was forced to play its own international “home” matches outside the country, the National Sports Stadium has received CAF Category 3 approval.

International football can finally come home.

The importance of that cannot be overstated. Competitively, our teams can once again enjoy genuine home advantage.

Commercially, hosting matches in Zimbabwe removes some of the enormous costs that came with staging our “home” fixtures in other countries.

And emotionally, it means even more. There is something special about watching the Warriors walk onto the pitch in Harare, hearing our anthem inside our own stadium and seeing thousands of Zimbabweans in the stands supporting their national team.

That feeling cannot easily be measured on a balance sheet.

But bringing football home does not make the wider financial challenge disappear.

Zimbabwe now has a growing national team programme with several teams competing on different fronts.

The Warriors are pursuing qualification for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations. The Mighty Warriors are on the Olympic pathway towards Los Angeles 2028. The Young Warriors are beginning their own Olympic qualification journey.

Beneath those teams, we are rebuilding the junior national- team structures that are very important to our Dream 2030 vision.

This is bigger than one team or one competition. We are building a national football system, and a national football system needs national support.

That is why I believe we have to start looking at our national teams differently.

The Warriors are not simply ZIFA’s team. They are Zimbabwe’s team. The same applies to the Mighty Warriors, the Young Warriors and every age-group team that steps onto an international pitch carrying our flag.

The Government has an important role to play, and we are grateful for the support it continues to provide to our national teams.

But the Government and ZIFA cannot carry the responsibility alone.

There is a place for corporate Zimbabwe. There is a place for financial institutions, airlines, hotels, medical organisations, broadcasters, transport companies, equipment suppliers and businesses that understand the value and power of being associated with the national game.

And there is also a place for the millions of Zimbabweans who follow these teams from every corner of the country and across the diaspora.

We deeply appreciate the partners who have already chosen to walk this journey with Zimbabwean football.

Their contribution goes far beyond having a logo displayed on a shirt, advertising board or media backdrop. Their support helps make national representation possible. But we need more partners to join us.

And perhaps we also need to broaden our understanding of what partnership means. It does not always have to begin and end with a cheque.

A hotel can help accommodate a national team. A transport company can help move players and officials. A medical partner can contribute towards player health and welfare.

An airline can help our teams — or individual players travelling from different parts of the world — get to camp.

A financial institution can help us build sustainable programmes around the national game. A broadcaster can help take the story of our teams into millions of Zimbabwean homes. There are many ways for corporate Zimbabwe to become part of this journey.

Football offers something very few things in our country can offer. It brings us together. When the Warriors walk onto the pitch, we do not ask which province a player comes from.

We do not ask which club he represents. We do not ask which neighbourhood he grew up in or where in the world he now lives. In that moment, he is Zimbabwe.

That is why the cost of national-team football should not be viewed simply as an expense sitting on a ZIFA balance sheet.

It is an investment in national representation. Our responsibility at ZIFA is to manage that investment responsibly, transparently and strategically. It is also our responsibility to create partnerships that make national-team football sustainable over the long term.

The ambition cannot be to scramble for assistance every time another fixture appears on the calendar. We have to build something stronger.

We need an ecosystem of partners around Zimbabwean football that allows our teams to prepare properly, travel with dignity, compete consistently and walk onto the international stage knowing that an entire country stands behind them.

That is the future we should be working towards.

The badge on the players’ chests carries the Zimbabwean flag. It should also carry the collective support of Zimbabwe.

So, when the Warriors walk onto the pitch in Morocco against Sierra Leone, and when the Mighty Warriors, Young Warriors and our junior national teams take their own steps onto international pitches, I hope we see more than just another football match.

I hope we see the planning behind it, the investment, the travel, the sacrifice, the administrators working behind the scenes, the partners making a contribution, the coaches preparing the team and the players accepting the responsibility of representing millions of people.

Above all, I hope we see ourselves, because getting Zimbabwe onto the pitch is everybody’s business. The Government has a part to play.

ZIFA has a part to play. Corporate Zimbabwe has a part to play. Supporters have a part to play. Every Zimbabwean who believes in what our national teams can become has a place in this journey.

Dream 2030 will not be built by one institution alone. It will be built by a nation choosing to believe, invest and participate. The work continues. The opportunity is ours. Now is the time for Zimbabwe to get behind its teams, build together and give the men and women who carry our flag every chance to compete with pride, purpose and belief.

When the whistle blows, they carry all of us with them.

Nqobile Magwizi is the president of ZIFA.