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Philip Chiyangwa

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIFA and COSAFA president Philip Chiyangwa left the country for Zambia yesterday to begin what is set to be a whirlwind tour that will take him to Southern African countries that are under his jurisdiction.

Chiyangwa, elected COSAFA president in December last year, has not had an opportunity to meet with each of the 13 nations under his leadership amid pressing commitments at home, at CAF and FIFA business.

The Harare property mogul is expected to meet with the Football Association of Zambia president Andrew Kamanga and his executive and also inspect the facilities in that country.

ZIFA communications and competitions manager Xolisani Gwesela said in a brief statement on the association’s website that Chiyangwa would submit reports to CAF and FIFA at the end of his tour of duty.

“The Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) president, Dr Philip Chiyangwa has embarked on a tour of COSAFA member countries to inspect football progress.

“The COSAFA and ZIFA chief will leave for Zambia today (yesterday), where he will meet the Football association of Zambia president, Andrew Kamanga and his executive committee on Wednesday (today).

“Dr Chiyangwa’s tour will cover all countries in the COSAFA region, and he will submit reports to the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) and the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) after the tour.

“But it must be noted that the tour is not going to take place in continuous days.

“He will visit South Africa next after Zambia, but there are also some other engagements to follow which include the COSAFA Castle Cup in the North West province in South Africa at the end of this month,’’ Gwesela said.

The COSAFA region made up of Angola, Comoros, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe is the largest bloc in CAF.

This year’s COSAFA Castle Cup will be the first that Chiyangwa will preside over since replacing Suketu Patel of Seychelles as president and the ZIFA boss has since challenged the Warriors to impress after two successive editions in which they have failed to go beyond the group stage.

Despite having the proud record of being one of three countries to have won the competition four times, the Warriors have fallen down the COSAFA rankings and will once again have to qualify for the knock-out stage after enduring the preliminary round groups.

The Warriors will, however, scale new heights at this year’s edition of the Southern Africa’s flagship tournament. Zimbabwe will reach a special milestone when they become the first country to play 50 matches in the championship.

The Warriors’ second Group B clash against Madagascar at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on June 28 will see them bring up a half-century of games, to be matched later in the competition by Zambia.

Chipolopolo are actually one match ahead of Zimbabwe on 49 already, but they only enter this year’s tournament at the quarter-final stage when they take on Botswana on July 1.

But the Warriors also lead the way in terms of number of wins with 31 from their 48 matches to date, six more than Zambia, who have the next highest on 25.