Sports Reporter
TENDO ELECTRONICS believe their investment into a social football club, now in its 13th year running, could be a game changer and influence to other companies to follow suit to boost the health of their workers. The Harare company are still celebrating their team’s success story in the Standard Chartered 5-A-side tournament which has handed their players a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go to Anfield and watch Liverpool in action in February next year.
Mike Kamungeremu, the company’s managing director, said he believes their triumph in the Standard Chartered 5-A-side tournament, and the glamour prize it has brought to their players and coaches, will influence other companies to have such social football projects for the sake of their workers’ health.
The triumphant Tendo FC players are set to watch the Premiership match between Liverpool and Southampton at Anfield on February 1.
The Reds, who are also the European champions, are chasing their first domestic league crown since 1990 and beat Tottenham 2-1 on Sunday to open a six-point lead over second-placed Manchester City.
The players set to make the trip are Farai Bosha, Nathan Mangisi, Allan Nyachuru, Lincoln Saramaya, Ashley Inusa, Peter Bunjira and Calistus Keche.
Interestingly, this was Tendo FC’s first plunge into Five-A-side football as their team usually plays the traditional 11-Aside game in the Communications League.
And, Kamungeremu said the story was more than just having their players going to Anfield, but bringing to prominence the importance of investment into such social league team, by companies to boost the health of their workers.
The issue of wellness has become topical around the world.
The recent National Fitness Day 2019 in the United Kingdom showed it influenced millions of people throughout the country to be active, with more than 2,1 million children and young people taking part on the day.
“Tendo FC was formed in 2006, and it was formed to give employees an opportunity to remain fit through playing soccer and also to take time off their busy schedules and unwind a bit,’’ Kamungeremu told The Herald yesterday.
“The team plays in the Communications League where it has been winning the league title year-in-year-out over the past couple of years.
“This year, after winning the title again, we then thought of taking up a new challenge by taking part in the Standard Chartered 5-Aside tournament.
“The players were drawn from the regular Tendo FC team. We competed against 16 other teams and we won the trophy without conceding a goal throughout the entire tournament.
“Winning the trophy came with it the ticket to watch Liverpool at Anfield early next year.
“As a company, we are very proud of the team and hope that what these seven players have achieved will inspire the entire Tendo family to achieve more in future.
“We also have an athletics team at Tendo and we look forward to celebrating more success stories from both the soccer and athletics teams.’’
Kamungeremu said while it was tough to run football club in the country today, the investment was worth it.
“It is not easy to run sports teams these days. I want to thank the club president Chatanga Badza and the coach Phineas Tundu for their good work.
“I also salute Standard Chartered for coming up with such an initiative.
“What this means is that we can come together in what is a win-win situation and every part benefits at the end of the day and it’s remarkable that although we have been doing this for more than 12 years, it’s only now that people are talking about us.
“It shows the importance of such tournaments. Football is big in this country and the number of people who are either playing it, or watching it, any given weekend, away from the Premier League and Division One and Two leagues, is huge.’’
Standard Chartered are the principal sponsors of Liverpool.
“Sport is a unifier not only in Zimbabwe, but across the globe. In almost all the countries we operate in, there is football,’’ said the banks chief executive Ralph Watungwa.
“So, we have come up with this arrangement since we are also Liverpool sponsors.’’
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