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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter

ONE of the founding members of the now-defunct football club Blackpool, Forbes Chitava, was laid to rest this afternoon at the Provincial Heroes Acre at Warren Hills Cemetery in Harare.

He is survived by his wife and three children.

Chitava was conferred with the provincial hero status by President Mnangangwa in recognition of his contribution to the liberation struggle.

Chitava passed on last week on Wednesday in Gaborone, Botswana. He had travelled to the neighbouring country to process a United States visa so that he could go and attend the wedding of his son next week. He collapsed and died in his hotel room.

Mourners who included ZANU (PF) spokeperson Chris Mutsvangwa, former Senate president Edna Madzongwe and former Blackpool directors led by their former chairman Ronnie Chihota, Ben Muchedzi, Ginger Chinguwa, former ZACC commissioner Goodson Nguni, top policeman Erasmus Makodza and long-time friend and former Blackpool chief of protocol Simeon Jamanda attended the funeral.

Chitava and six other members – Chihota, Joe “Pajero” Musenda, Muchedzi, the late Joel Salifu, Chinguwa and the late Lecture Mpange – were part of the original seven members who acquired a franchise from the police side Black Mambas and renamed it Blackpool.

The club changed the Zimbabwean football landscape as it was run by professional young directors who sponsored and paid their players handsomely.

Blackpool was the first club from Zimbabwe to reach the semi-finals of the Africa Club Cup Winners Cup competition in 1995. They lost to Algerian JS Kabylie.