The ManicaPost
News that there is a new football club in the name of Manica Diamonds FC based in Mutare came as a surprise to many, much as it was music in the ears of multitudes of soccer crazy people of Mutare and Manicaland at large.
Since the discovery of the precious gems in Chiadzwa and the subsequent setting up of organised extraction of the mineral resource, calls for the need to plough back to the surrounding community became an anthem. While piecemeal donations have been done in the past targeting various sectors of the surrounding community ranging from education, welfare to health, sport and football in particular has been crying out for help from proceeds from Marange.
A sponsorship package for a once off football tournament that came with the now defunct Mbada Diamonds was the least the football followers in Manicaland had ever expected. Apart from not being able to benefit the sponsor in terms of publicity and mileage given that the tournament used to run just for a month or two, common sense dictated it was much better to invest the same energy and resources in sponsoring a truly Mutare based football club that would wave the provincial flag and that of the sponsor for the entire season.
This is what the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Mining Company has just done and the onus is on all progressive people of Mutare in particular and Manicaland at large to support this new project. Mutare football followers cannot ask for anything more from this State owned diamond mining company given that this is a team that is set to help promote local football talent as well as represent the hopes and aspirations of the people of Manicaland through sport.
Elsewhere in this newspaper we carry a story of how football players from all corners of the country are flocking the club’s trails and this is ample evidence of the prominence and eminence that this team will add to the good name of the city and the province. What now needs to be done is for us all in Mutare and Manicaland to support this initiative especially those that have been in football for some time.
Commendably, the club has embraced locals from the playing field to the technical and administrative set up. Even those tried and tested administrators that have been working tirelessly for local financially poor clubs must not think twice if offered a chance to join the new club.
We need no rocket scientist to come tell us that the club is ours and it needs a true Manicaland face no wonder some social media groups are already debating on possible nicknames for the club with some suggesting names such as Ngoda Nemagirazi, 16 Carats, Ngoda Boys, Magweja and so on.
This is something that we have been crying for as a province and now that it has come to fruition in our time, history will judge us harshly if we do not do the right thing by joining forces with whoever is already there to see to it that the club prospers. In the same breadth, we sincerely thank the management at Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Mining Company for ploughing back into the community they operate in.
While we acknowledge the need to have our own players playing for the team we are also mindful of the need to have players and coaches from other regions to come in to strengthen the club. After all, that is the trend all over the world otherwise we would not have Christiano Ronaldo plying his trade in Spain or even our own Warriors captain Knowledge Musona in Europe.
It is against this background that we want to wish Manica Diamonds success in the Eastern Region Division One season of 2018 and ever after.
