Black Rhinos Queens retained the LM Auctioneers Cup held over the weekend in Bulawayo.

The two-time winners played against Township Rollers in the final, winning 4-0.

Black Rhinos Queens coach, Brian Derera said he was not surprised with the win.

“If you work very hard it will be easy to win. I am used to winning even at the league everyone wants to beat us because they know we are the champions so we work hard,

“Next season might be difficult for us with players from other teams training but we are going to defend the title again,” Derera said.

Township Rollers Coach Ronaldoh Nkutlwisang applauded the winning team and said they will go and work on improving their team’s mobility.

“I think the Zimbabwean standard is better. The players have played much position but we were not mobile and tried to close the space.

“If you play with a team that is mobile it is more difficult for you to try to close the space which made it difficult on our part. One thing I realized is the team (Black Rhinos Queens) has togetherness which enabled good communication,

“To the girl child, sport is one thing that disciplines the girl and more girls should play football,” Nkutlwisang said.

Lewis Muzhara, the director of LM Auctioneers which funded the tournament commended the organising committee for enabling an organized event.

“This tournament was more organised than the previous tournaments. The organising committee did a good job and worked to me it a successful and organised event,” Muzhara said.

Muzhara however called for the corporate world to take a stance in supporting women football.

‘It’s always my cry to the corporate world to stand up and support the girl child. Yes I pulled it alone as LM Auctioneers but when doing this tournament it was my wish to see other stake holders partnering with us or starting their own programs that support women football. We want them to follow suit,” he said.

“Next year’s edition is going to be big and exciting as it will be held in Harare.  We have been going under Matebeleland for some time,” Muzhara added.

Muzhara also shed light on the selected teams saying he hopes the tournament is expected to go regional.

“The idea of the tournament was to make it regional with the successful clubs in Southern Africa for a start. We are testing for a championship league for women clubs in Southern Africa.

“Sponsoring the local league would be too heavy for me but I hope the corporate world will provide a useful hand,” he said.

Muzhara is an enthusiast of women football and has supported the Mighty Warriors on many occasions including travelling to Brazil for the Rio Olympics in August.

Individual awards were also presented to the players with Mighty Warriors coach Shadreck Mlauzi being given an accolade for leading the national team to the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil and AWCON in Cameroon.

Individual Awards

Most promising player: Francisca Tsikwa (Black Rhinos)

Best goalkeeper: Process Chatsamwa clean sheet (Black Rhinos)

Best player of the tournament: Bema Ngenda (Township Rollers)

Fair play award: Hearts of Oak