Zimbabwe will not be sending a team to the United Nations-backed, Homeless World Cup football tournament in Brazil this weekend, following a previous disastrous trip to Australia in 2008 where 9 out of 10 players absconded and claimed asylum. On Tuesday team coach Petros Chatiza told journalists that he did not even bother to prepare for the seven-aside tournament in Brazil. Last year, when Italy hosted the same tournament, they declined to give visas to the Zimbabwean team fearing a repeat of the Australian debacle. Ironically one of the themes of the tournament is ‘beating homelessness and poverty through football.’
‘We are now trying to get ready enough to be accepted in France next year,” Chatiza said. Under strict visa rules Chatiza will have to show that his players are gainfully employed or at least making a reasonable income from self-help projects to want to come back home after the tournament. Given that it’s a World Cup soccer tournament for the Homeless, it appears an impossible task.
The team conducts their training sessions in Hatcliffe just outside Harare. In 2005 the government, under the much condemned Operation Murambatsvina, destroyed so-called shanty settlements and vending stalls in areas like Hatcliffe. Most of the players in the team are victims of the brutal operation which left over 700 000 people homeless and tens of thousands of others destitute.
Zimbabweans working in the sports, arts and entertainment industry have generally struggled for visas to travel abroad because of the political and economic conditions which discouraged many from going back. Several years ago a group of boy scouts from Zimbabwe absconded during a trip to the UK meant to honour the founder of the Boy Scouts movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell.
Post published in: Football