The Sunday News
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
FOOTBALL stakeholders in Victoria Falls have thrown their weight behind the town’s Southern Region Division One representatives Mosi Rovers as the journey towards integrating all teams for the purpose of bringing topflight football to the resort town gathers momentum.
The idea of establishing a united team for the resort town has been the residents’ wish and recently the corporate world dominated by tourism players indicated it was more than prepared to support a united club.
Victoria Falls, as key as the town is to the country’s economy, has never tasted Premier Soccer League football as no team from the town has ever gained promotion. Over the years, the town has had numerous Division One clubs competing against each other.
One remembers the days of Intundla FC, Gorges Security, Elephant Hills, Savanna, Zamaleck, Super Eagles, Kujatana, Sao Paulo, Trumus, Amagagasi and many others who competed against each other and could not make it to PSL.
Critics who include fans and potential sponsors have advised for incorporation of all teams to form one club saying there was potential if the town supports a single team. On Friday Mosi Rovers unveiled former Bulawayo City coach Try Ncube as their new coach at a ceremony attended by a cross section of football stakeholders as well as a new executive made up of members drawn from different clubs.
Some Victoria Falls Division Two teams such as Corinthians, Nakuluba, Monde, Twelve Stars, Shekina and Classic Luyando have since shown support for Mosi Rovers with some of the latter’s executive members drawn from there.
It remains to be seen if Trumus FC, who are making a return to Division One after getting promoted from Division Two last season will buy the idea, which is not about Mosi Rovers but about having one united team, veteran football administrator Morgen “Gazza” Dube said.
There was no representative from Trumus on Friday.
“Football is bringing order to what was chaos and we will be bringing order to Victoria Falls if we come up with one team,” said Dube at the occasion.
Guest of honour Clement Mukwasi who was representing the tourism industry said sponsors were tired of a divided community.
“Now is the time we have been waiting for, come together and support Mosi Rovers and mobilise all resources we can into the team. This is the beginning of unity for the town. Let’s forget about failures from previous attempts and be positive because sport is business and a serious agent for unity in any given community. The corporate world is donor fatigued by being asked for sponsorship from different ends yet we can be integrated into one,” said Mukwasi.
He pledged US$500 to the club on behalf of Shearwater Adventures and challenged other companies and individuals to come on board.
Mukwasi, a former Sport and Recreation Commissioner said with a united club, it will be easy to lobby the council for infrastructure development as well as mandate every investor to commit to do something for sports development.
Mosi Rovers chairman Martin Mhlanga said the football sector has a daunting task to bring top flight football to Victoria Falls.
“Other towns have PSL clubs and we don’t have one simply because we don’t have a team belonging to the whole town. We believe we have the capacity and we are confident we have chosen the right person as coach hence we will continue to support him,” said Mhlanga.
The 46-year-old coach, Ncube, is making a return to his home town after guiding Bulawayo City back to PSL last year.
He holds a Caf B badge and needs a Caf A licence to sit on the PSL bench in the event that he leads Mosi Rovers to premiership.
He said he has a list of players he wants to bring to Victoria Falls to achieve his goal of bringing premiership football to the resort town in one season.
“Hunger and desire to make history in Victoria Falls made me come here. Coming up with a single club in Victoria Falls is a very noble idea as we will have a bigger pool to select players from and my task here is to take the team to where it belongs, which is PSL,” he said.
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