Published by the government of Zimbabwe
27 October 2007
Harare — THE Warriors contingent that plies its trade on the domestic front is expected to leave Harare on Monday for a week-long tour of Vietnam.
The team will take part in the Agribank Cup -- a four-nation tournament that has been organised by the Vietnamese Football Federation.
Hosts Vietnam, Finland and Uzbekistan are the three other nations taking part in the tourney.
The matches will be played in Hanoi with the winner of the tournament pocketing US$40 000 while the runners-up will get US$20 000.
There will be a US$10 000 cash prize for the team finishing third.
The Warriors were invited on the strength of growing ties between Zifa and its partners in South East Asia.
Zifa chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya is expected to leave Harare today for further talks with their partners in South East Asia where a Memorandum of Understanding is likely to be signed.
"I'm leaving for Vietnam tomorrow (today) for a series of meetings with our partners there and hopefully we will be able to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with a number of associations.
"We have spent years battling to find regular opponents for our training programmes in Europe but nothing has materialised and we have since decided to try virgin areas in Asia.
"After our performance at the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia recently, we have received numerous invitations to send our teams to Asia and this trip to Vietnam is just the beginning.
"You will realise that we are sending basically the same players who played against Malawi in the Nations Cup qualifier and it's a way of just keeping the team together," said Rushwaya.
But there will be a change in the coaching personnel.
Norman Mapeza, who guided the Warriors to an impressive 3-1 win over Malawi before being appointed the substantive Under-23 coach, will not be available for this tour of duty.
"Norman has asked to be excused from this tour because of his other commitments, notably trying not to disrupt the training programme that he has in place for Monomotapa who are battling relegation.
"So we have appointed his assistant in the Under-23 team set-up, Luke Masomere, to lead the team to Vietnam."
Rushwaya said the trip to Vietnam means that the Premiership programme set for next weekend will have to be suspended.
"We wrote to the PSL management committee asking them to factor in this trip and they agreed that they could not proceed with their programme because some clubs will be affected.
"They have agreed to defer their programme, which is a positive gesture on their part."
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