Brazil to face Zimbabwe on Wednesday
By M. J. Somoni
Zimbabwe’s Warriors will face world football heavyweights Brazil at the National Sports Stadium next Wednesday. In a report posted by the Herald, the Zimbabwe Football Association chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya and Paul Leisegans, a representative of Kentaro, Brazil’s sports agent, officially signed the contract that will take the Samba Boys to Harare for Wednesday’s clash.
Zimbabwe minister for tourism and hospitality, Walter Mzembi, said Brazil’s visit was a fulfillment of the objectives and tasks that cabinet had given his ministry, which included bringing at least one of the 32 World Cup teams to the country. “It’s now confirmed that Brazil will play Zimbabwe on June 2 in Harare.
“It’s the fulfillment of objective number one, which was the luring of teams to come and play in Zimbabwe. The other objective was to increase the number of tourist arrivals in the country before and after the World Cup.
“Through our partnership with NetOne [mobile phone operator], we will also have fan parks with NetOne funding 16 public viewing points – eight each in rural and urban areas – but the aim is to have the fan park project spread to all the 73 districts.
“Luring teams has been a tall order from the time we travelled to Brazil, but as I have said before, if you lure Brazil you have lured the rest of the world.
The minister and Mr Leisegans insisted the costs of bringing the Samba Boys were not as high as the figures of between US$1.5 and US$1.8 million that had been thrown around.
“The deal is signed and we are all happy about it. We have come to a price that I know and I am certain that we are all happy about. The Government of Zimbabwe is happy and we are happy. The deal is 100 per cent confirmed.
“But it is far lower than the figures that have been reported,” Leisegans said.
Dunga and his World Cup squad flew into South Africa yesterday morning with the Samba Boys immediately heading to their base within Randpark Golf Club in Johannesburg. Goal.com
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