Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
IT’S a measure of how the football winds have shifted in our Premiership that in the week of the Battle of Zimbabwe, all the eyeballs have been on a game which will be played outside Harare.
On the outskirts of the capital to be precise.
Just 40km away, double the distance between the main Post Office in Harare and KwaChikwanha in Chitungwiza, no toll gate in between, just an express drive on a beautiful motorway.
Norton!
The last census in 2022 showed that Norton had a population of 87 038 people which meant that they could all get into Wembley and leave a few empty seats.
It’s likely that the population has grown a little bit, but at the time it was conducted, it’s very likely that no one outside this town knew about the MWOS One Community grassroots initiative.
Well, it’s what has given us MWOS, the football club.
Until last year, MWOS was just another name and another symbol of the madness of sports betting which has found massive patronage across our country.
Now, it’s a symbol of a football club which is shaking the domestic Premiership landscape and leading the race for the title after a baker’s dozen of games in the marathon.
This afternoon, the grudge match which the people of Norton have been waiting for since the season opened, will finally be played before a full house at Ngoni.
The last time Scottland came to town, on August 17 last year, there was another full house and Denver Mukamba scored a beauty in a titanic duel which ended in a 1-1 draw.
What the two clubs didn’t know was that in nine months’ time, they would clash again at a refurbished Ngoni, in virtually similar circumstances, when both of them are leading the Premiership race.
I never imagined from my time as a boy that a day would come when a match between Dynamos and Highlanders would be overshadowed by a game between two clubs who were in Division One just six months earlier.
That fans would pay more to watch such a match, compared to what fans will pay to watch the DeMbare/Bosso game with the cheapest ticket at Ngoni going for US$5 and the cheapest ticket at Rufaro going for US$3.
That the tickets for the Ngoni game, despite being more expensive, would be sold out just a day after their release.
That the PSL would even be forced to run a competition, offering free tickets to the winners, to try and boost attendance at Rufaro for the DeMbare/Bosso showdown.
The PSL tried to ensure that the Dynamos/Bosso game would have no counter attraction – the only other league match is Kwekwe where bottom club Kwekwe United host GreenFuel.
Today, fans have a choice – Herentals, who have moved into fourth place, are at Rufaro and Simba Bhora host Ngezi Platinum at Wadzanai in a clash of the last two champions.
Still, this has not diluted the massive interest in the game at Ngoni and I’m pretty sure this would have been the first match to fill up Rufaro since the Warriors did it 14 years ago.
Yes, without any doubt, this game would have attracted 30 000 fans at Rufaro if it was played there today.
But, it’s at Ngoni and the people of Norton deserve their chance to watch their team from a ringside seat and all the local economic benefits that will come from the invasion of their town by thousands of fans from Harare.
Welcome to the hometown of Knowledge and Walter Musona, the birthplace of Washington Arubi.
THE GAME HAS CHANGED IN A VERY BIG WAY
This game, in particular, and these two clubs, in general, represent the changing face of football in this country.
I know there are a lot of reluctant folks who say that these clubs are just shooting stars and their glow will fade as quickly as it explodes.
I understand their pessimism because they saw other similar projects – Blackpool, Amazulu, Motor Action, Monomotapa, Gunners – shake the establishment and then just fade away.
But, let’s not forget that before Mamelodi Sundowns struck gold, and transformed themselves into the dominant force in South Africa, a number of others had tried and failed in Mzansi.
Patrice Motsepe picked lessons from those failed projects and used them to build his Sundowns and now this is a club which considers failure to be crowned champions of Africa, a huge setback.
Bernard Marriot and his Dynamos never saw any value in building a stadium, something which MWOS have done and something which Scottland are doing.
Sundowns, Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain are powerful examples of the transformation which can happen when real money is invested into a football franchise.
While both Scottland and MWOS do not have the owners who have as much money as the billionaires who own Sundowns, Man City and PSG, the two local clubs have owners who are prepared to inject as much money as they can spend to transform their clubs.
They have owners who know that without a substantial investment of money, their projects will not realise their true potential.
They have owners who know that while money is not everything in football, it is a game-changer and, used wisely, it can change the landscape in a way no one ever thought was possible.
Dynamos are dying, slowly and painfully, simply because they are owned by a man who doesn’t even have money to pay his monthly DStv subscription, which has to be paid by the club.
The Glamour Boys are dying simply because the owner doesn’t have the money to pay the players their bonuses and incentives which means that, at any given point, the coach is leading a pack of disillusioned individuals.
It was only this week that we got to know that in the last three seasons Emmanuel Paga has been playing with a broken heart because he was owed a considerable amount of money by the club.
We have seen Fred Botchway playing for Scottland this season, it’s like he is a different player from the one who was at Dynamos last year and the only difference is the environment.
When we have a Dynamos team which is deserted by its captain, who even chooses to go and join a club which was not even in the league five years ago, then we should know that these are the powerful signs that this could be the end of an era.
The irony today is that the two coaches in either dugout are also DeMbare sons, good young men who left Marriot and his family after realising that their welfare and their future would be better served away from his toxicity.
Away from his madness, they have found homes where they are both thriving with Tonderai Ndiraya having won the championship last season.
The other irony is that the primary kit colour of the two teams which will battle at Ngoni today is BLUE. It’s like they are both reminding us of a golden past, when DeMbare were kings and the Battle of Zimbabwe was the biggest fixture on the domestic football landscape.
That’s all gone now and it’s a pity Marriot isn’t seeing that.
The PSL should have made the Battle of Zim a curtain-raiser at Ngoni today.
Maybe, that would have shown Marriot how much he is being left behind trapped in a haze of madness.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!
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