The Sunday News
Sports Reporter
THE inaugural Zifa Awards, where the national football governing body will honour those who have contributed to the development of the game in this country — including the greatest Zimbabwean Footballer of All-Time as chosen by the people — have been postponed. The glitzy show, set to feature high-profile international football personalities, was scheduled to be held at the Harare International Conference Centre on November 11.
However, after a lengthy meeting in Harare last week, the committee tasked with organising the show agreed with the Zifa leadership to postpone the show to a later date this year because of a number of reasons.
“The first thing is that the Warriors will be committed on the same date with an international match in Namibia and a number of our players are supposed to be part of the gala,’’ Tendai Taruvinga, who is the deputy chairman of the organising committee, said.
“Then some of the key figures in our game, including Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa, who will be hosting the foreigners expected to grace the event, has been invited to Tunisia as a guest of the Tunisian Football Federation on the same weekend.
“We have been left with no option but to postpone the show but we can assure the public that we will try to ensure that the delay is minimal and we will advise of the new date very soon.”
A host of domestic football legends, the finest three Warriors ever, the best coach to guide the senior national team and the three outstanding Zimbabwean footballers, who excelled in foreign leagues last season, are set to be honoured at a star-studded awards gala this year.
The best coach to guide the Mighty Warriors, the best administrator to take charge of women’s football, the best three players to feature for the senior women national football team in history will also be honoured at the same glittering gala.
Zimbabwe’s most successful football club, the best professionally run football club in the country in history and the best three coaches to guide domestic football clubs since 1980 will also be honoured on the same night.
Taruvinga also revealed that those who want to take part in the voting process, via text messages, for the greatest Zimbabwean footballer of all-time, can start doing so now on all mobile phone networks.
Peter Ndlovu (PN), George Shaya (GS), Moses Chunga (MC) and Bruce Grobbelaar (BC) are the players who have been short-listed for the award.
“Those who want to vote can simply send an SMS to 35553, and they have to include the initials of the players they will be voting for and their names, for example ‘ZIFA#GB#John Moyo’ if John Moyo wants to vote for Bruce Grobbelaar or ‘ZIFA#PN#John Moyo’ if he wants to vote to Peter Ndlovu or ‘ZIFA#MC#John Moyo’ if he wants to vote for Moses Chunga or ‘ZIFA#GS#John Moyo’ if they want to vote for George Shaya.
“A person can vote as many times as he or she wants and the platform is already live and running and those who vote will also be in line to win prizes like a Honda Fit, LED TVs and smartphones.’’-The Herald.
