| By Whatmore Kufa,
on December 31 2007 19:11
|
Favoured : 18 |
Mwana Africa
Football Club is faced with massive exodus of senior players
following the side’s relegation from the Zimbabwe Premier
soccer League at the end of the 2007 season.
The side finished bottom of the 2007
league and will be playing in the Northern Region Division One in
2008.
Several senior players in the relegated
side pointed out that they too good to be playing in the Division
One leagues and are now looking for prospective teams in the
Premiership.
"We tried our best to save the team but we lacked the
support from the company directors.”
"Now the team has gone down
but I should not go down as well.
"I still have contract with the club
running for another year but I want to buy myself out now," said a
defender at the club.
Former captain Thomas Svesve, goalkeeper
Lovemore Makwavarara, striker Tawanda Mareya, Alisara Kondiowe,
Tendai Mwatiyi, Costa Maradzike, Benjamin Marere, Chipo Tsodzo,
Webster Muronda, Milos Phiri and Stephen Alemenda all want to
leave.
Sweswe wants to play for Dynamos, so as
Makwavarara and Muronda is going to CAPS FC.
Tsodzo is seeking a move back to his
former club Highlanders who are prepared to take him for the CAF
Confederation Cup 2008.
One of the players said: "There is no
guarantee that the management will support the team with finances
in Division One so that we are back in the top-flight league.
"I don’t want to waste my time
fighting to bring a team in the Premier Soccer League when the
people who control the club drag us the opposite direction," he
quipped.
On December 30, 2007 there was supposed to
be a club executive meeting where the directors of the Bindura
miners were invited but they did not come.
"Only the managers who
are in the team’s executive came and the directors who
control the money did not bother to come.
"It shows there are prepared to see the
team folding up for good," said one executive club member.
Mwana Africa wrote its own piece of
history as the first club to gain Premiership status in Mashonaland
Central Province when it was promoted in 2006.
In its first year Mwana Africa won the
inaugural CBZ Cup and the slot to play in the CAF Confederation Cup
competition for the first time in 2007.
The club had been built on the ashes of
Trojan Mine and Ashanti clubs that were both owned by corporate
giants Mwana Africa in December 2004 before winning the Division
One title in 2005 unbeaten at home.
The club started the 2007 season badly and
the management fired Willard Khumalo as head coach towards the end
of the season but Arthur Tutani, the man credited with winning the
Division One championship failed to produce wins.
Mwana also failed to reach the mini-stage
of the Caf Confederations, losing to TP Mazembe of DR Congo. |