The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Warriors and Highlanders midfielder Methembe Ndlovu’s Grassroots Soccer Zimbabwe (GRSZ) is dangling a sponsorship carrot to struggling Castle Lager Premiership outfit Mutare City Rovers in a deal that might see a 50 percent shared ownership of the club if it comes to fruition.
A meeting between the two parties has since been scheduled for Friday (today).
Mutare City Rovers are struggling to find their feet in the ongoing 2018 Castle Lager Premiership season where they are at the bottom of the log standings.
Lack of adequate financial resources after Mutare City Council, the club owners, availed a paltry $150 000 for the entire season, has seen the team failing to pay salaries and bonuses to players and coaches on time.
Although no official comment could be obtained at the time of going to Press as Mutare City Council spokesperson Spren Mutiwi could neither confirm nor deny the latest development, reliable sources within the local authority confirmed that a letter has already been received from GRSZ.
“I cannot make any comment on that at the moment until I get information from the relevant office,” said Mutiwi.
Efforts to contact Ndlovu for comment were fruitless as his mobile was unreachable.
However, a source within the local authority confirmed that a letter has already been received from GRSZ.
“They (GRSZ) have written to the local authority and the matter will be discussed in a meeting on Friday between the two parties,” said a source who refused to be named citing protocol.
The partnership between Mutare City Rovers and GRSZ, if it comes into being, might end the Mutare club’s financial woes and possibly breathe life into their fight for survival.
Ndlovu has been managing director of GRSZ, a non-profit organisation that uses the power of football to inspire, educate and mobilise communities against the spread of HIV since 2005 until he became a non-executive director owing to business commitments.
“I am proud of what we have achieved since I took over as managing director in 2005. This seemed like the right time to hand over to Bhekimpilo Moyo who is going to be acting managing director until a substantive director is confirmed.
“In the meantime, I will be assisting, but from a distance. I will take a role as a non-executive director as well as one of the founders at Grassroot Soccer. I will always be very close to the organisation. I feel I have a capable team that will take the organisation forward after nearly 10 years. It is the right time for fresh leadership and new ideas. I am proud of what we have accomplished, but there is still a lot more that still needs to be done,” he told the media when he stepped down as the director.
The organisation targets in and out-of-school youths who go through a programme that teaches them life skills on prevention of the spread of HIV and Aids.
“When I started in 2005, we were seeing about 2 000 children a year. In 2014 we saw 12 500 children. The more our community has access to the programmes that we have the better. It is not all about numbers or getting children through the programme. We have diversified it in terms of the type of programmes that we offer,” Ndlovu was quoted back then.
