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Highlanders’ secretary-general Emmet Ndlovu

Raymond Jaravaza, Sports Correspondent
HIGHLANDERS will not be part of the Royal Cup game that had been slated for February 25 against Swaziland side Manzini Wanderers, but will instead travel to South Africa for a training camp.

The proposed Royal Cup tie against the Swazi team was an initiative of the Royal Cup Trust and launched at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) on Friday last week.

Highlanders executive members did not show up for the launch.

Bosso secretary-general Emmett Ndlovu said the reason the Bulawayo giants will not be taking part in the Royal Cup is because the organisers were non-committal on the demands they made, forcing the club to forge ahead with its plans to travel to South Africa.

“The Royal Cup Trust wrote inviting us to be part of the match against Manzini Wanderers and we gave them conditions. We asked them to meet a number of requirements, but they didn’t come back to us. In fact, they kept saying they will meet our demands after the launch, but we made it clear that they couldn’t launch their cup without first meeting our demands,” said Ndlovu.

“Because the organisers had also invited a foreign team, that match should have been sanctioned by the relevant authorities, PSL, Zifa and the SRC, but we have not heard anything from these bodies and as Highlanders we do not operate outside the rules and regulations that govern football in the country. The fact that Zifa and PSL have not given us communication on the Royal Cup means we cannot take part in it,” he said.

According to Ndlovu, Bosso also asked the PSL to postpone the proposed ZNA Charities Shield semi-final tie against FC Platinum set for Barbourfields Stadium on February 12 to allow the team to go ahead with plans for a training session in South Africa.

“We informed the PSL that we had already made plans to take the team out of the country and would not be available on February 12 and we just received a letter stating that the semi-finals of the ZNA Charities Shield have been moved to 26 February,” he said.

Highlanders are set to leave for South Africa on Sunday.

“We are going to South Africa for a two-week training camp and the team will be staying in Polokwane for the first week and all things being equal the team will then proceed to Bloemfontein for a couple of days. Unfortunately the South African league is back in full swing so it means the team might not be playing friendly matches against teams from the Absa Premiership, but we might just have training games against them. Indications are that the club will not be sending a full squad.

“Ideally, we would have wanted to take all registered players or contracted players, but it will depend on affordability (of the trip) and recommendations from the coaches. Some of the players are said to be injured and some are unavailable for a number of reasons, but we would have loved to take the whole squad,” Ndlovu said.