Grobbelaar backs Zifa NC to revive football

FORMER Warriors goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar believes the recently launched Fifa Football for Schools (F4S) project will unlock the football talent potential the country has.

Zifa in conjunction with Fifa last week launched the F4S, a project which targets to introduce and garner football interest among the age groups of between 4-14 year-olds.

Minister Coventry revealed on the launch of the F4S that she held talks with Fifa President Giovanni Infantino on having the program launched in Zimbabwe.

“This one of the first things he (Infantino) agreed and ensured that it would come quickly and it has come quickly and we want to thank the president of Fifa and his leadership team and our continental football president Motsepe for the support that they are giving Zifa in this renewed spirit of bringing back the Zifa that we are proud and will do justice for all of the talents that we have across the country,” she said during the launch last week. Former Liverpool goalkeeper, Grobbelaar was full of praise to the Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry for playing a pivotal role in having the program launched in the country.

“This program comes from, initially I am going to say it comes from the Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation minister, Honourable Kirsty Coventry, without her intervention into the Zifa’s demise in the past, this program would never get here,” said Grobbelaar. With the coming in of the Normalisation Committee led by Lincoln Mutasa, the former national team goalkeeper believes Zimbabwe is on the right path of resuscitating football.

“The Normalisation Committee has been brought in and it is a very difficult job.

“Since around the time of the past two presidents of Zifa, there have been a lot of discrepancies and the NC has now got those discrepancies away and the debts are cleared.

“I understand 100 percent of what their task is and it is not a thankless task because initially there are so many debts and I know they have now put out structures in place and without them, this program will have been launched,” said Grobbelaar.

“I would like to thank every single one of them in the NC because they are on a path to resurrect what we once had as Zimbabwe which has been neglected and back without these kinds of programs we can never get the future stars for our country.

“We have got it now in full circle in Zimbabwe, with that I am going to tell you that Zimbabwe is a sleeping giant of African football,” he said.