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Sports Reporter
WHEN the Bosso roadshow rolls into Ngezi this weekend for the top-of-the-table showdown, one thing will be missing — replica jerseys for the invading army of fans. Thousands of Highlanders fans are expected to converge at Baobab on Saturday for their team’s Castle Lager Premiership battle against leaders Ngezi Platinum. However, while the Bosso players will be wearing their branded new jerseys, their fans have been wondering how they can get replicas to identify with their stars. CAPS United and Dynamos supporters also find themselves in the same scenario.

The Big Three of domestic football are now using the Roar kit, made in China, but designed by a local company, who went into partnership with the club’s sponsors NetOne.

While the company has delivered the playing kit, which is being praised on social media sites by fans despite the negativity which greeted the training kit, it has not supplied the replica kits.
Fans have been wondering where they can get the replica kits for their teams.

“I have fallen in love with this kit, but I have been looking everywhere to try and get my replica jersey, but there is nothing in store for us supporters right now,’’ a Bosso fan said amid the social media hysteria that has greeted their team’s resurgence.
“It’s quite disappointing and we are getting to the halfway stage of the year and there is nothing for us. When the kit was unveiled there were promises that the replicas will be available soon, but nothing has come through by now and that’s frustrating.’’

No comment could be obtained from the Roar representatives yesterday although The Herald understands that the replicas are stuck in China.

This newspaper could not establish why they were not being shipped to Zimbabwe.
NetOne and their partners promised to deliver the replicas at a function when their partnership with the Big Three Clubs was unveiled in Harare. The function was attended by Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, and his Information, Communication Technology and Cyber Security counterpart, Supa Mandiwanzira.

Meanwhile, despite the initial reservation which greeted the Roar training kit, the Zimbabwean company has now attracted interest from outside the country with Botswana giants Mochudi Centre Chiefs the latest team to request a partnership with the firm for the supply of their kit.

“There has been contact between Mochudi and Roar and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed for a partnership which will see the Zimbabwean company supplying the kit for the Botswana club,’’ sources in Botswana told The Herald.

“Things have been moving at a fast pace and the Mochudi Centre Chiefs officials were actually impressed by the Highlanders kit and decided they could engage the company that provided that kit for their team. It’s a huge seal of approval for you guys that a foreign team has fallen in love with the equipment that a company from that side is providing.’’