HomeOld_PostsThe happy days of football are back

The happy days of football are back

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ONE cannot talk about the heroics and success of the Mighty Warriors without mentioning former coach Rosemary Mugadza, Zimbabwe Women Football boss Miriam Sibanda and predecessor Mavis Gumbo.
Zimbabwe Women Football board members, Cecelia Gambe, Ben Mamoche and Edwin Magosvongwe are also names in the mix in this success story.
Names like Charity Munemo, Lewis Muzhara, Ndega Matsika and Mabelo Njekwa are other names we might never get to hear, but fuelled the Olympic dream.
The above names ensured that the girls delivered under very difficult conditions.
Mugadza and her team will forever be icons of women football and we must not allow them to disappear or be relegated to the dustbins of football history.
Whenever we talk about women soccer we should always remember the courageous and selfless efforts of Mugadza and team that saw nothing else, but soccer.
The pain, the frustrations, the misery and lack of support of the Mighty Warriors are well documented.
Those with a sharp memory remember the horror camp at ZIFA Village in Mt Hampden the girls went through in March 2014.
After beating Botswana in the African Women Championships, the team was holed up in Mt Hampden without food and other basics.
The soccer mother body had failed to provide bus fare for the victorious girls.
They had to make do with small portions of sadza, boiled kapenta and pumpkin leaves sourced from their shallow pockets.
Beyond doubt they played for the love of the game.
They played because they were passionate about the game and had a point to prove.
And they have proved it.
I pray that now that the girls have proved themselves and their worth in a spectacular and inspiring fashion, they will get all the support required for them to continue doing well.
Obviously the girls do not want to just add to the numbers at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
They want to compete.
They want to do well for themselves and their country.
In competition with other nations, no country wants to emerge a loser.
At stake is more than personal pride, but that of the nation.
A nation that will not support its institutions doing national duty cannot stand proudly in the family of nations.
That nation will always be bullied by other nations that have functional systems that make their teams thrive.
It is a fallacy to talk of superb national teams that are not backed by the necessary support and appropriate tools.
Time and experience has shown us the folly of sending ill-prepared teams to do duty.
Where national teams are not fully supported results have never been positive.
While we might not be the ‘best’ football nation in the world, we are compelled to give our teams, our girls all the support we can.
Going forward, we want more of people like LM Auctioneers chief Lewis Muzhara who have extended support to the Mighty Warriors for the love of the game.
Klaus Dieter Pagels who facilitated a three weeks long camp in Germany last year should also be given credit for helping the Mighty Warriors.
History is littered with cases of the underdog doing the unimaginable, rising to the occasion driven by a fire fanned by patriotism and appreciation of the support from one’s motherland.
Our girls will perform to the levels that we will support them.
Angry and hungry, the Mighty Warriors played to the best of their ability and qualified for the Olympics.
Happy and satiated, what will they do, what upsets will they cause?
The team is our pride, they are our ambassadors.
They will not be called the girls from Harare, Mutare or Bulawayo, but the golden girls from Zimbabwe.
And it is this fact that must see us all give the girls everything.
It is the prerogative of Zimbabweans, every Zimbabwean to ensure that our girls blossom.
Never again we must declare.
Our girls must never again experience the horrors that they experienced.
Women football has earned its stripes and it is time that stakeholders take it seriously.
The happy days in football are back.
Our current leadership of sport gives us hope.
The work that the Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhosini Hlongwane,whose appointment was just 36 days ago, is highly commendable.
He has exhibited the servant-leader type of leadership.
The minister cares as has been shown by the attention he is paying to all sports and his lack of bias.
He has shown equal attention to both female and male sportspersons.
One hopes that the fire in the minister will not die out, but continue to burn until all our flagship teams do well on the continental and international arena.
The qualification of the Mighty Warriors to the global event (Olympics) is the epitome of soccer achievement since independence.
The highest achievements were the senior men’s soccer team to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2004 and 2006.
We must be proud of our Mighty Warriors for making history.
Brazil here we come!

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