The Zimbabwe women’s soccer team faces a ban from the global sports festival, the Olympic Games, and future international engagements.
This followed the Mighty Warriors’ failure to travel to the Ivory Coast to fulfill a 2016 Olympic Games qualifier after the Zimbabwe Football Association failed to raise enough funds to enable the team to travel to that country.
The team had initially been penciled to fly out on Friday evening only for the trip to be postponed to Saturday morning and by the time of the game game was supposed to be played Sunday, they were still stuck in Harare.
As a result, the Mighty Warriors are now out of the 2016 Olympic Games and also face a ban from taking part in the qualifiers for the 2020 Games, as well as other Confederation of African Football or CAF competitions.
On top of that, the Zimbabwe Football Association also faces a heavy fine from CAF for having entered the team in the competition in the first place.
Zifa have accepted blame but are also throwing stones at the government claiming that all efforts to get their financial support did not bring the required results.
In a statement, Zifa said they last year presented their budget to the government for all their 2015 fixtures but they did not have the money.
However, soccer fans, including analyst Liberty Nyakudzuka, say the Zifa authorities have failed the football family.
He says this has long been coming, adding that those at Zifa should just call it quits because of the numerous blunders they have made.
While the Mighty Warriors were at home pondering of the next move, the Young Warriors were on the field of play at Rufaro Stadium.
Kalisto Pasuwa’s side were a big disappointment as they failed to beat South Africa’s Amaglug Glug in a 2015 Africa Youth Championship first leg of the final qualifying round just managing a one-al draw
The Young Warriors had to thank a last gasp penalty from Walter Musona for their one-all draw.
Football commentator Stanley Katsande believes the Young Warriors can still go to South Africa and win in two weeks time.
Katsande says Kalisto Pasuwa’s patient groundwork will one day be rewarded.
There were celebrations, however, in Davis Cup tennis, cricket and in boxing.
The Zimbabwe Davis Cup team whitewashed visiting Moldova 5-0 in a five game Euro-Africa Zone Group Two tie that ended at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
The win sees the Zimbabweans retain their place in the Euro-Africa Zone Group Two next year while Moldova have been relegated to the Euro-Africa Zone Group Three.
At the same vein also yesterday, the Zimbabwe cricket team could afford a smile after they beat visiting India by 10 runs to equal the T20 Series to one-all.
The Zimbabwe had lost the first T20 game by 54 runs and also lost the ODI Series 3-0.
But the weekend belonged to the boxing fraternity.
World Boxing Council International welterweight title holder, Charles Manyuchi, made a successful defence of his title when he brought down Gianlucca Frezza of Italy in six rounds.
The win will do well for Manyuchi’s world ranking as he seeks to challenge for the WBC’s top title held by Floyd Mayweather of the USA.
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Report on Mighty Warriors CAF Ban Filed By Michael Kariati