Soccer fans ecstatic as ZBC screens AFCON

HARARE — PHEW, at last! soccer fans here are saying. Zimbabwean soccer fans at last have something to smile about after national broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), started screening live and delayed matches of the Africa Cup of nations on Friday.

ZBC, which enjoys broadcasting monopoly, has announced it had belatedly secured the foreign currency required for rights to beam matches live.

Now fans pray that the electricity supply situation — characterized by frequent, long outages — improves.

However, as ZBC only has one station, a considerable number of matches would be pre-recorded.

The news has lifted the gloom of many as Zimbabweans are passionate about their soccer, despite the national team — dubbed the Warriors — constantly failing to stamp its mark on continental football.

Since ZBC has traditionally screened AFCON tournaments, many fans took it for granted that they would enjoy the action in Ghana, only to be informed by the broadcaster that it was still negotiating beaming rights as the tournament was kicking off last Sunday.

The Warriors have only made it to two consecutive AFCON finals since independence in 1980 —in 2004 (Tunisia) and 2006 (Egypt) — despite being ranked among the top 10 teams on the continent for long periods. They are currently ranked 18th after a torrid campaign last year.

On Friday night, ZTV began its coverage with the screening of the Cote d’Ivoire versus Benin match before broadcasting another Group B tie featuring Nigeria’s Super Eagles and the Eagles of Mali.

Zimbabweans, who lost out to Morocco in their AFCON qualifying group, are keen to gauge the strengths of Guinea and Namibia — two nations in the Warriors’ World Cup and Nations Cup group.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have given exclusive rights for live broadcasting to all the matches to Sports Five Network, so other networks and broadcasters have to pay up to get transmission. The amount is calculated based on the size of the country’s population. This has left several countries that have qualified — including Zambia Nigeria and Namibia — unable to pay up.

In confirming the live transmission of AFCON, ZBH chief executive officer Henry Muradzikwa said: "Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings is pleased to advise its viewers, listeners and the public that rights to broadcast the on-going African Cup of Nations being played in Ghana have now been secured."

Sweet news to soccer fans.

What’s more, the broadcaster has plans to screen and repeat those matches already played that the majority of Zimbabweans missed. “ ZBH has also been granted the rights to broadcast those matches which have already been played. This will enable the public to watch matches they had missed… Some parts of the country could be without electricity and it will certainly be good to repeat some of the games if possible," Muradzikwa said.

Since the nation has only one TV channel, the screening of AFCON matches will disrupt the normal broadcasting schedule. Ecstatic soccer fans could not care less.