The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
A TOTAL of 32 Zifa Bulawayo teams are set to take part in a knock-out tournament scheduled to kick off next week.
The inaugural Bulawayo Province Cup will see Division Two and Division Three teams slugging it out in the competition that is funded by the Zifa Bulawayo Province.
Provincial acting chairman Allan “Ripper” Mpofu said the first round will begin next week and will be played every Sunday until the final.
“We held our draw last week and put all the teams into one hat, there was no seeding and the first team drawn out plays at home.
“We are excited about the tournament as it allows Division Two and Three teams to square off against each other. Division Three teams will also want to prove a point they are as able as the teams that are a rung higher than them,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu said after realising there will be a surplus from the funds raised from registration fees, they felt it would be in the interest of the teams to come up with a knock-out tournament.
The winner is set to walk away with $2 500 while the first runners up will bag $1 000 and second runners up will get $500.
Next Level Sports chipped in with $500 to make the first prize $2 500 after the province had budgeted $2 000 for the winners while Body Works Gym committed to funding the Top Goal Scorer and Player of the Tournament individual prizes.
“We are happy that teams won’t be fighting for the championship and promotion only but they have a cup also to battle for. We will also fork out the referees’ fees for all the cup games as teams usually cry about lack of funds to pay match officials so it is an expense we decided to take care of.
“We hope to make the tournament better and bigger next year as we have started engaging corporate partners to come on board and partner us,” he said.
