‘Birds’ give Leopard CAF wings
MBABANE – Rivalry was yesterday put aside as Mbabane Swallows made a contribution to Royal Leopard’s TOTALEnergies CAF Champions League campaign against Zambia’s ZESCO United.
The MTN Premier League champions last season, Leopard left the country by road yesterday to South Africa, where they will today connect a flight to Lusaka, Ndola for the second leg Champions League preliminary round on Saturday afternoon. Before they left, they received a morale boosting gesture from their bitter rivals in the field of play.
Swallows’ General Manager Sandile ‘Beyond 2000’ Zwane, in the company of another high-ranking official in the club, Welile Mabuza as well as supporter Muzi ‘Bondas’ Simelane, presented beverages in the form of bottled water and Energade energy drinks to the blue and white police ensemble. While Zwane asked not to quantify it, the gesture was well-received by Leopard. This was at the police headquarters.
“We are here because our President, Archbishop Bheki Lukhele sent us. He felt that Leopard could not just leave for this big assignment and not get any motivation. So, as Mbabane Swallows, we are presenting these on behalf of our president and we believe it will help you in your task as you travel to and from Zambia. Our president wishes you the best and he hopes that you bring back the points (win) from Zambia and because Swallows love travelling, when you continue to the next round as you will, we believe fans will be back and we can travel with you,” Zwane said.
He said it was high time that local teams united for such assignments to succeed while also giving Leopard courage from their own experience in the CAF interclub tournaments. “If you look at the history of the country’s teams, the record is good away even for the national team than at home, so Leopard can beat ZESCO away, we did it against Zanaco,” Zwane said.
He then explained why Swallows were close to Leopard, saying whenever his team travelled, it would be the latter’s officials who offered them a lot of help while he was also personally raised by the police team’s Chairman Meshack Ntshalintshali.
Leopard’s PRO Frank Hurube welcomed Swallows and reiterated Zwane’s words that they had history as clubs who have played in the CAF competitions and rivals locally before Ntshalintshali spoke on behalf of the club. “We’re grateful to the Swallows family for this gesture. It is what siSwati entails that when someone leaves or returns home, he’s given something. Swallows have fulfilled what as police we also set out to do, mingle and work with communities or the people other than just dealing with criminals only which was the basic life of a police officer a while ago,” he said. He said that football was a sport that united and built families so as Leopard; they were touched by the Swallows gesture.
Interestingly, the two sides play each other in the 2021/22 MTN Premier League opener next month, while Mbabane Highlanders face off with army side Young Buffaloes.