Trust Rukwava
Centre News Sports Hub
Masvingo- Grassroots soccer in Masvingo has received a major boost through the scheduled participation of youth soccer teams from the Province in the upcoming BancABC Roots Impact national soccer tournament.
Team Masvingo will see the Under 16 boys team led by Head coach Israel Mutoda, Assistant coach Lazarus Sithole, and Safeguarding, headed by Luxmore Mavhunga, lock horns with other players from other provinces in the country.
The Under 16 girls team is led by Head coach Winfred Chagweda, and an assistant coach is set to be appointed in due course, together with the team Manager, Safeguarding, and Medic.
The Under-14 boys team will be led by Masvingo United FC, Junior Development h head coach, Billiard Muchenje, with the rest of the backroom staff set to be announced.
The Under 14 girls team will be shepherded by head coach Annacolletha Mweneziko, Safeguarding will be Ellen Zvanaka, while the rest of the technical staff will be announced towards the tournament.
The first-ever BancABC tournament aims to nurture talent from the grassroots, touching all geographical areas of the country.
ZIFA official, Mark Mlambo, said the tournament comes at a time when most football clubs had abandoned junior structures.
“For many years now, most clubs have abandoned the culture of junior teams and junior tournaments of Coca-Cola, Schweppes, and other sponsors, which used to be there when we grew up in the 80s, maybe due to economic hardships or lack of interest from sponsors. Therefore, talent development had actually taken a nose dive, such that there was no junior talent to talk of.
Now BancABC is helping in a very big way to revive this culture and will also lift soccer even in marginalised rural areas where youngsters do not have even basic things like a soccer ball, and will start to kick a proper ball. The structures had been hijacked by social soccer, which is being played only for money and in an unprofessional manner, but the tournament will remove youngsters from participation in these social soccer settings,” said Mlambo.
The tournament is part of ZIFA’s strategy to rejuvenate junior football development that had sunk deep into the murky waters of oblivion over the past decades.
