THE kit the Warriors intend to use for their opening 2021 AFCON qualifier tomorrow is being held at the ZIMRA offices at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, just a day before the match.
The Warriors face the Zebras of Botswana at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow evening but some bureaucratic bottlenecks have seen the Umbro kit, which the team intends to use in that game, stashed at the ZIMRA offices. The Warriors kit sponsors sent the equipment in time for tomorrow’s game but the ZIMRA officials have been holding on to it because they want certain procedures to be cleared first.
ZIFA officials have desperately been trying to get the equipment, which they believe shouldn’t be levied any duties, since it’s coming to be used by the country’s senior national football team. However, sources have told The Herald that there appears to be some disagreements with ZIMRA officials and this has seen the equipment being held at the airport for days now.
This has forced ZIFA to use old kit for the Warriors’ training programme which got underway in Harare on Tuesday.
“Umbro sent the equipment because the deal stipulates that there is are kits for the AFCON qualifiers, kits for the World Cup qualifiers and kits for other tournaments like CHAN,” sources told The Herald.
“But the kit has been held up by the ZIMRA officials for some days now because they want to establish whether it’s supposed to come in for free or certain duties have to be paid for it to be cleared.
“The ZIFA officials have been running around for days now to try and secure the supporting letters to show that, indeed, the kit should come in for free since it’s meant for a national programme given the national team’s matches are national projects.
“Maybe it will be released on Thursday (today) no one knows but you know that such equipment should be used even during camp which has been on since Sunday.”
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