Nkosilathi Ndiweni yesterday unveiled the banner and logo for the Royal Cup tournament in Bulawayo
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO soccer giants Highlanders will play Swaziland’s top side Manzini Wanderers at next year’s Royal Cup to be held before the start of the 2017 domestic season.
Bosso and Manzini Wanderers who are bankrolled by one of King Mswati’s wives will lock horns in the second edition of the Royal Cup at Barbourfields Stadium on February 25. Queen Mswati will be the guest of honour when the Royal Cup is played in Bulawayo.
The Royal Cup is an initiative of the Royal Cup Trust Foundation, a project that was initially mooted to help Highlanders Football Club in its 90th anniversary celebrations, and will be organising matches pitting the Bulawayo giants and teams from Southern Africa.
In the first edition of the Royal Cup, which was used to start Highlanders’ 90th anniversary festivities at the beginning of the year, Bosso beat Botswana’s Gilsport 2-0 courtesy of goals by Knox Mutizwa and Prince Dube.
Royal Cup Trust chief executive officer Nkosinathi Ndiweni said they settled for Manzini Wanderers FC because just like Highlanders, the Swazi outfit is a club that was formed by descendants of royalty.
“If it was not for Cont Mhlanga, the founder of Amakhosi Arts Cultural Centre, who at the time in his capacity as the coordinator of the Highlanders @90 celebrations requested people to come up with ideas and concepts for the occasion, Royal Cup would not have been born.
“Highlanders is a club founded by descendants of royalty so it came naturally that an idea to sponsor a soccer tournament and cultural conference would be ideal as it would bring people from different walks of life as sport is a unifier. Royalty is in itself tolerant and non-discriminatory, so is football,” said Ndiweni.
Apart from hosting football matches, the Royal Cup Trust Foundation also intends organising a cultural conference for kings, chiefs and cultural practitioners that will be complemented by cultural exhibition of cultural wares as well as fostering interaction between locals and visiting dignitaries on cultural issues.
Proceeds from the match, which will be curtain-raised by ladies’ sides Highlanders Royals and Inline Academy, will be donated to charity as well as non-profit organisations that deal with awareness in the fight against the HIV/ Aids scourge.
Meanwhile, Ndiweni said the sponsorship package for the tournament will be announced at the official launch of the competition which will be held in Bulawayo on January 27.
— @ZililoR