History
Southern Rhodesia played their first official match against the England Amateur national football team as part of the latter's tour of South Africa and Rhodesia in June 1929. Southern Rhodesia lost their first two matches against England 4–0 and 6–1, respectively. [2] In 1965, following Southern Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence as Rhodesia, FIFA requested that the Football Association of Rhodesia reform to be a multi-racial organisation. Prior to this, only white Rhodesians were selected for the national football team but after 1965 the team became multi-racial. [3] In 1969, Rhodesia took part in the Oceanic 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament. This was their first attempt to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Contrary to the team being viewed as the representative team of white Rhodesians, the team was multi-racial including black players. [4] They were drawn against the Australia national football team. Both legs were held in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique as the Rhodesian team were unable to get Australian visas. Rhodesia drew the first leg 1–1 but lost the second leg 3–1 thus eliminating Rhodesia from qualification. [4]
In 1980, following the country's reconstitution as Zimbabwe, they played their first FIFA World Cup qualifying match for 11 years against the Cameroon national football team. However they lost 2–1 on aggregate after a 1–0 win in the first leg in Salisbury and a 2–0 loss in the second leg. [5] [6] Following this, the country passed a law that people who held British passports would not be permitted to hold a Zimbabwean passport, which mean that players such as goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, who is considered to be Zimbabwe's greatest goalkeeper, [7] were not selected for the national team for 10 years. [8] Following a change in policy that allowed Grobbelaar to play for Zimbabwe, who entered the country on his British passport, Zimbabwe under manager Reinhard Fabisch were one match away from qualifying for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, they lost their final qualifying match to Cameroon. [8] [9]
In 2004, Zimbabwe qualified for their first Africa Cup of Nations. During their first match against Egypt, their former anthem "Ishe Komborera Africa" was accidentally played instead of "Simudzai Mureza wedu weZimbabwe", an act which Information Minister Jonathan Moyo called "a cheap attempt by the organisers to demoralise our boys". [10]
In 2015, the Zimbabwe national football team were banned from participating in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying due to an unpaid debt to former coach, José Claudinei. [11] At the time, the team was experiencing its strongest period for many years, qualifying for both the 2017 and 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
On 1 March 2022, Zimbabwe, along with Kenya, was suspended again from international sport due to the interference of the government. Earlier in November 2021, Harare and Nairobi dissolved their federations and were replaced with government-officials. On 31 March, the suspension was made indefinitely and was ratified by FIFA. Suspension is set until Zimbabwe and Kenya meet the demands given by FIFA. The team has produced some of the finest footballers the likes of the legendary Peter Ndlovu who played for Zimbabwe 100 times. He featured in the English premier for Coventry City, Birmingham City, Sheffield United and Huddersfield. Peter Ndlovu is well remembered for the hatrick he scored at Anfield against Liverpool, Bruce Grobelaar former Liverpool Goalkeeper, Norman Mapeza former Galatasary defender, Benjan Mwaruwaru former Man city player. Knowledge Musona former Anderletch and Bundesliga player. Khama Billiat former Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs player.
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