Bruce Hobson, the highly reputed Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) president and one time winner of the prestigious Sports Administrator of the Year award, faces mounting criticism and pressure for his reluctance to transform the game’s governing body into a professional and commercially viable entity.

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“How can investors come aboard when they are seeing no progress being advanced,” queried one stakeholder.

ZRU insiders accused Hobson and his “lieutenants at the top of the game” of failure to revamp the structures of the game, a situation they believe will enhance the stature of the body and the game at senior level.

While active participation of Zimbabwe’s national teams has been hamstrung by lack of sponsorship and support from the relevant stakeholders, sponsors are falling over each other at the junior ranks of the sport as was evident at last week’s Cottco sponsored Schools Rugby Festival. Companies such as Cottco, South African Airways, Glens Care, and Power Sales among others were actively involved in terms of support towards the successful hosting of the festival.

“Sponsorship and financial support are the main problems we are facing as a union,” said Modreck Makotose, the ZRU’s development manager.

His president at the union, Hobson, could not be reached for comment.

However, The Zimbabwe Gazette can also exclusively reveal that early this year, there were at least two corporate giants, one of these a commercial bank, that were willing to pour money into the association’s coffers.

However, insiders at the ZRU said, the sponsorship could not materialize as officials from this firms demanded the setting up of professional structures first.

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