THE Zimbabwe Senior men’s volleyball team has intensified its preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games qualifiers due to be held in Durban South Africa from February 1-10. Â
With some of the payers in the current squad having played in the All Africa Games qualifiers held in Namibia last year, Head coach Willex Chisvo said he hoped the experience the players had from that tournament would stand them in good stead. Â
Some of the countries expected to take part include Cameroon, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Seychelles, Uganda and hosts South Africa.
ZBC fails to get Afcon rights
THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has failed to secure rights for the live screening of the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament.
Sources said ZBC failed to provide schedules after failing to raise the R10 million required to secure broadcasting rights for all the 56 matches.
French marketing company, Sport Five Network, have the TV rights for the tournament. In the past, the ZBC depended largely from free coverage from Sport Five which holds the marketing rights for the next five editions of the AFCON.
Zimbabwe only has one television station, which is controlled by the government.
The national broadcaster could become the second southern African country after Zambia to fail to buy rights for the tournament.
Adebayor wins BBC award
EMMANUEL Adebayor has won the 2007 BBC African Footballer of the Year award after a public vote. The Togo striker garnered almost 42% of the vote, beating Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast into second place.
An inspirational figure, Adebayor has been the sharpest of strikers for English Premier League title-chasers Arsenal, scoring 13 goals this term.
Ghana’s Michael Essien, last year’s winner, finished third ahead of Mali’s Freddie Kanoute. Cameroon and Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o finished fifth.
The 2007 shortlist of five players was drawn up by football experts from every country in Africa, based on players’ individuality, skill, technical ability, teamwork, consistency and fair play. After the bitterness he felt at failing to lead Togo to the Africa Cup of Nations finals, Adebayor can at least take some consolation at winning one of the most prestigious prizes in African sport.
Previous winners include Ghana’s Michael Essien and Sammy Kufuor, Mohamed Barakat of Egypt, Senegal’s El Hadji Diouf, and Nigeria’s Jay-Jay Okocha.
The lanky goal-getter from Lome made his debut for French league side Metz at just 17 and scooped a (European) Champions League runners-up medal in 2004 after moving to Monaco.
He has twice been nominated as the Confederation of African Football’s Player of the Year and his 11 goals for Togo in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup was the best on the continent.
Fabisch’s crazy schedule
FORMER Zimbabwe national coach Reinhard Fabisch who is now the coach of Benin, hopes to make the quarter-finals at the Africa Cup of Nations despite the Squirrels’ “crazy” preparations.
Benin play Mali, Ivory Coast and Nigeria in Group B, but prepared for Ghana by training in Brazil.
“We were in Brazil for 10 days, and Tunisia before that – our schedule has been crazy,” the German told BBC Sport. I think we’ve spent more time in the air than on the training pitch in the last two weeks,” he said.
“Preparing in Brazil hasn’t helped us at all because it’s a lot of time zones to cross and a lot of flying time, which is exhausting the team. But it was a government-to-government agreement between Benin and Brazil – and when you offer an African federation something for free, they will take it,” said Fabisch.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News