The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Sports Correspondent
FEMALE soccer teams in Chimanimani and Zimunya communities are among the first beneficiaries of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) sourced kits and training equipment.
The nationwide rural constituency grassroots outreach programme is aimed at discovering and nurturing abundant talent in rural areas.
Among the teams that benefited from the kits and equipment worth US$5 000 are Eastview, Northridge, Chimanimani, Ngangu, Bumba, Hot Springs and Nhedziwa football clubs.
ZIFA’s head of communications, competitions, marketing and club licencing, Xolisani Gwesela, said: “The equipment that we availed is enough to cover 10 teams. Seven female and three male teams will benefit. We realised that there is a lot of raw and undiscovered talent in our rural areas, a reason why we are taking football to them using the rural constituency grassroots outreach programme.
“We are targeting the rural areas. Our first port of call was Chibuwe also here in Manicaland. We moved to other provinces before coming back to Manicaland,” said Gwesela.
He said plans are underway to form leagues in rural areas so that rural teams can benefit from the association’s personnel trainings and other football activities.
Gwesela, however, said for a league to be formed, there is need to have at least 10 teams in the area.
“When they have enough teams, we form the league and we will be able to train all football portfolios in that constituency. With the formation of leagues, the teams will be guaranteed to benefit from all football activities that ZIFA conducts,” he said.
Gwesela said every talent should be discovered and the association is ready to train referees, coaches, players, medics, administrators and other personnel in rural areas.
In a separate interview, ZIFA technical director, Wilson Mutekede, said rural communities were overlooked in development programmes for a long time and they are trying to change this through the outreach project.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa thanked the association for donating to the girl child in the rural areas and urged female soccer players to aim high.
“There should not be discrimination between children in urban and rural areas, therefore we should embrace the forming of soccer teams in all marginalised areas. Let us strive to play for the national team and other foreign teams,” she said.
