European flair: Espanyol, West Brom to play Zim teams Xolisani Gwesela
Xolisani Gwesela

Xolisani Gwesela

Lovemore Dube Senior Sports Editor
Plans are underway to bring two top European soccer clubs, Espanyol of Spain and England’s West Bromwich, to Zimbabwe this year.
Zifa yesterday confirmed that two teams were most likely to visit the country either in June or July for a series of international friendlies.

“It’s work in progress at the moment. We will avail you with more details in due course once every detail is on our table,” said Xolisani Gwesela, the Zifa spokesperson.

It would also be good advertising for Zimbabwe football which is desperate for international recognition.

Espanyol and West Bromwich could visit the country in a tour to be promoted by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. It is part of the organisation’s promotion of sports tourism and should the two come, it would be good endorsement of Zimbabwe as a safe tourism destination.

According to sources in Harare, no decision has yet been made as to which teams the visitors will play. Both teams will be on pre-season training.

It is hoped the matches will be during the half year PSL break.

Sources said if matches against the senior national team do not materialise, Espanyol and West Bromwich would play local football sides like Dynamos, FC Platinum and Highlanders FC.

“Discussions are underway here in the capital for the two clubs to tour Zimbabwe. The environment is ideal for sports tourism to be promoted.

“We’ve world class facilities which need to be used to exploit that line of tourism. These are world known football brands and we stand to benefit a lot as a country if they come here. There’s a likelihood of the teams playing against top football clubs in Zimbabwe, much at the moment is at planning stage,” said  a source in the capital on Wednesday.

This will not be the first time that ZTA are involved in international football. In 2010 they were involved in the bringing in of Brazil ahead of that year’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

However, things did not go well as match agents Kentaro suffered a $700,000 loss from the game with Zifa also crying foul.

So much about the match has, since that year, remained a puzzle.

Previously teams like FC Zurich Grasshoppers, Athletes in Action, Coventry and FC Brondby have toured Zimbabwe for a series of friendly matches in the 1980s and 1990s.

The matches would provide locals an opportunity to engage in international football and come up with invaluable experience.

Sugar Chagonda, the ZTA spokesperson, could not be reached for comment as several calls to his numbers yielded no result.

 

You Might Also Like

Comments