Mighty Warriors camp next week DYNAMOS Football Club chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze

Geophrey Sifani Sports Reporter
ZIFA chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze has assured the national women’s soccer team that they will definitely go into camp in Bulawayo next week to start preparations for the African Women Cup of Nations’ qualifiers and the Rio Olympic Games.

The Mighty Warriors, who made history by becoming the first local football side to qualify for the Olympics, will play against Tanzania in an African Women Cup of Nations qualifier in March and will face either Zambia or Namibia if they manage to overcome the east Africans.

They will then head to the biggest global sporting showcase in the huge Brazilian seaside city of Rio de Janeiro in August for the Olympics and depending on the outcome of their qualifiers, the African Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon in December.

“They’re going into camp next week and we’ll issue a statement tomorrow (today) in terms of the actual date because we’re still working on logistics pertaining to the camp,” said Mashingaidze.

The girls were initially meant to go into camp on January 12 at Elangeni Training Centre in Bulawayo but Zifa postponed it at the 11th hour much to the frustration of the technical staff.

“This time we’re going through with the camp. The reason we had to postpone the initial camp was because there were so many logistics on the ground. The boys (senior men’s team) were in camp and we didn’t want to crowd the teams. We know that the girls deserve to be well looked after as well and the board is now looking at ensuring that they are well catered for in camp,” Mashingaidze said.

Mighty Warriors’ coach Shadreck Mlauzi said he hoped the camp won’t be postponed again as they want to start ground work for the Olympics.

“We are already two months behind our training schedule and we now have to ensure that we work around the clock to see to it that players receive standard training and channel all efforts into team beneficiation,” said Mlauzi.

The Mighty Warriors had also been scheduled to play a friendly against South Africa’s Banyana Banyana on January 27, but it doesn’t look like the match will go ahead as the venue has still not been named.

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