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FOURTEEN years and counting!
That is the combined number of years in which Dynamos and CAPS United have not tasted the glory that comes with winning the domestic Premiership title.
The Glamour Boys have not been crowned champions for EIGHT years, with their last title coming in 2014.
The Green Machine have not won the championship in SIX years, with their last league success story coming in
2016.
Callisto Pasuwa, the last coach to lead DeMbare to league glory, when he won a fourth successive title in 2014, has already won three more titles at his new base.
Lloyd Chitembwe, the last coach to guide Makepekepe to league glory, is back in charge of his beloved Green Machine but things haven’t been going according to plan.
CAPS United have just lost their SEVENTH straight game in the championship race, the first time this has happened in their proud history.
Some analysts now believe that these are the signs that the capital, which used to be the regular home of clubs which won the league championship, has lost its grip on the biggest trophy in local football.
Both giants were beaten at the weekend, with Dynamos crashing to a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Yadah Stars while CAPS lost 0-1 to ZPC Kariba.
The two losses were inflicted at the National Sports Stadium, as if to remind them the capital was no longer a fortress.
Amazingly, between 1980 and 1989, in the first decade of Independence, the league championship was won NINE times, in TEN seasons, by clubs from the capital.
The Glamour Boys won SEVEN times – in ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’85, ’86 and ’89 – while Black Rhinos won TWICE, in ’84 and ’87.
Only Zimbabwe Saints, in ’88, provided a rainbow of hope for the clubs based outside the capital.
In the second decade after Independence, the league championship was won SIX times, in NINE seasons, by clubs from the capital.
Dynamos won FOUR times – in ’91, ’94, ’95, ’97 – Black Aces won once in ’92 while CAPS United won once in ’96.
Highlanders provided the lone opposition, for clubs from outside the dominant capital, with THREE league titles in ’90, ’93 and ‘98/’99.
Since CAPS United were promoted to the domestic Premiership in 1976, a season in which Dynamos were crowned champions, either of the two Harare giants, especially the Glamour Boys, were regular visitors to the winners’ podium.
Of course, now and again, they would come short but it was never for extended periods, before they bounced back.
They missed in ’77, when Saints won, but they bounced back the following year in ’78, with Dynamos winning the title and in ’79, when CAPS United won the championship.
No other club would win the title again until the All-Star Rhinos team did it in 1984.
The longest run, without a league championship being won by either CAPS United or Dynamos, was the combined TEN years – between 1999 and 2003, in which Bosso won FOUR times and Amazulu won once.
Then, there was the combined SIX-year barren run between 2008 and 2010 when Monomotapa, Gunners and Motor Action were crowned champions.
Now, they have just completed a combined FOURTEEN-year barren run without winning the league championship.
Online Reporter