THE Heart Group, owned by Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries founder and Yadah FC owner Walter Magaya, will tomorrow unveil a US$320 000 sponsorship deal for the Women football Super League, in a development set to transform the fortunes of women football in the country.
This comes at a time when domestic women football is underfunded and continues to suffer from neglect.
Magaya believes his sponsorship, which will cover all the league’s 16 topflight ladies teams, will go a long way in improving women’s football in the country.
“What we are trying to do is to return women’s football to its former glory. We have put a package that we think can help the league, in particular the girl child to realise her footballing dream. They [women] have long suffered from neglect and we feel the time has come to change all that,” he said.
“This is only the start. We have more in store for them. It’s very unfortunate that their request came this late when the league season is already halfway through. We are happy to help, and hopefully, a lot of girls are going to benefit.
“Our hope is to see our women’s national team qualifying for major global tournaments like what they did in 2016 when they qualified for the Olympics. We want to see the Mighty Warriors at the World Cup in the near future and our clubs competing in continental competitions.”
Magaya added: “I am happy that Herentals Queens will compete in the Women’s Caf Champions League, which starts this week. I want to wish them all the best and hopefully, they will bring the trophy home. That is the level that we want to see our women at and so we are calling business people and corporates to come and partner us. Together we can help develop and improve our girls.”
Zimbabwe Women’s Soccer League chairperson Theresa Maguraushe said the sponsorship had come at an opportune time when most clubs were struggling financially.
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The veteran administrator confirmed that they had already signed all the documents, which would see the league adopting the name The Heart League.
“All the documents have been signed and we are just waiting for the unveiling ceremony. The sponsorship will cover the super league as well as a knockout tournament,” Maguraushe said.
This is the first time that the women’s football league will have a title sponsor since 2013 when it was sponsored by Marange Resources.
“As the league, we are very excited. We have not had a sponsorship for a very long time and our teams have been struggling even to fulfil fixtures, so, this is quite huge for us,” Maguraushe said.
“We are very grateful to Prophet Walter Magaya, whose passion for the development of sport in the country is unparalleled. We are hoping this partnership will be renewed.”
According to the organisers, the handover ceremony will be held at Yadah Hotel in Waterfalls tomorrow evening.
A number of sportspeople, high-ranking government officials, sports associations, including the Zifa normalisation committee, businesspersons, corporates and a number of celebrities have been invited for the unveiling ceremony.
Magaya will use the same function to host the national senior men’s rugby team, the Sables, to celebrate their lifting of the Rugby Africa Cup last month.
He has also invited the sprinting duo of Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba to the event so that he can “honour” them for their exploits at the recently-ended Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Makarawu and Charamba made history for Zimbabwe when they competed in the Games’ 200m final, although they both failed to win a medal.
