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FOR a national game that has been crying out for a breeze of refreshing news, this was as good as it gets.
That beautiful image of the Herentals Queens, in their double-breast blue suits, white shoes and pink shirts, at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare, was just what the doctor had ordered.
Their coaching and supporting staff, in their double-breast black suits, white shirts and pink ties, were also dressed for the occasion.
It was an image sent from heaven.
And, for a national game which has been reeling from the sins of a leadership that was borrowed from hell, this was probably more than what the doctor had ordered.
For years, we had collectively been dragging our women’s football to its grave.
For some strange reasons, we have been treating our women footballers as if they are a nuisance even though they remain the most successful national football team in our history
This a branch of our game that gave us footballers who took us to the Olympics while all their male counterparts have done is to repeatedly break our hearts.
And, on the few occasions they have decided to turn on the style, all that the Warriors have done is qualify for the AFCON finals where, after just the first three group games, they pack their bags and fly back home.
And, despite their Olympic heroics, we have paid back our women footballers by taking them to camp at the sub-standard ZIFA Village, which looks more like a prisoner than a premise to house a national team.
Some of the Mighty Warriors claim they didn’t receive the mobile phones, which the sponsors of the 2016 Olympics gave to all the footballers who took part, and the stands we promised them turned into a hoax.
We diverted the millions that were coming from FIFA, which were specifically meant to help in the development of women football, into some questionable investments elsewhere in our game.
All the time, in our financial reports, we would repeatedly lie to FIFA that their money was going exactly where it was meant to go – into the structures of our women’s game.
But, soon, the lies caught up with us and, without the funding, women’s football in this country began to die a painful death and the Mighty Warriors were reduced into some form of a punching bag.
These heartless football leaders from hell transformed our women footballers into some sort of moving shadows, effigies of shame, ghosts of failure and some perennial flops.
Somehow, it even became normal for our Young Mighty Warriors to be thrashed 0-7 by their Botswana counterparts because no one really cared for them.
No one, among our football leaders, appeared concerned about such a shock result which provided confirmation that we had finally dragged our women footballers into the grave. But, not everyone in our football is a bad leader.
There are some good people in the game and they have been working, behind the scenes, to try and breathe life into the lungs of our women footballers.
They have been investing a considerable fortune to try and provide these amazing women with another chance to play the game they love and express themselves on the big stages again.
This week, one of the beautiful pictures being painted by these men was unveiled when Herentals Queens appeared at the RGMI airport on their way to Malawi.
The Students are in Malawi for the CAF Women Champions League COSAFA Qualifier and, on Thursday, they opened their mission with a 3-1 win over FC Ongos of Namibia.
For those who had not been following women’s football in this country in recent years, pushed away by the way our ladies were being treated by these heartless male administrators, here is a simple guide for you.
The Herentals Queens have transformed themselves into the dominant side in women’s football in this country.
They have been champions for the last two years and, last season, they completed their campaign unbeaten.
You can call them the Invincibles and, in their moment of glory, they matched what the great Arsenal team of 2004 did in winning the English Premiership title without losing a game.
BENZA IS A TRUE FRIEND OF OUR GAME
I watched their game against FC Ongos and just seeing our national flag flying in the background of the Mpira Stadium in Blantyre was quite a refreshing sight. Why?
Because there was a time, not so long ago, when I was beginning to feel that our women footballers would never return to such regional or continental battles.
This was also vindication for Innocent Benza, a man who has been ridiculed by many armchair analysts for daring to keep playing for his Herentals Premier League side, at the age of 53.
Many of these armchair analysts have questioned Benza’s love for football and when they are caught up in a trance to attack him, they paint this image of a monster who should not be allowed anywhere near our game.
They claimed he is only there to try and stroke his ego, at the expense of the game and the league that his plays in.
They have been some wild claims that his mere presence in the club that his owns was undermining the value of our top-flight league, even when most of our top teams have struggled to beat the same Herentals side he plays for.
This is a club, which even featured in the final of the Chibuku Super Cup, just two years ago and, had they won, they would have represented the country in the CAF Confederation Cup.
So, if he makes them all that bad, and he makes the Premiership some sort of a mockery, then why is his team doing so well that they even come to the brink of playing the CAF Inter-club competitions?
What all this criticism, disguised as analysis, has hidden is the hatred they have for this man simply because he has decided to use his personal football project as an avenue to explore his football fantasy.
He challenged himself, a long time ago, that he would want to play competitive football beyond his 50th year and created and sponsored a club which would provide him with an avenue to do that.
For me, what is important is his love affair with our game, and not whether he plays for Herentals or not.
What is important is that his love affair with football is providing scores of footballers, both men and women, with a chance to pursue their interests in this game and also take care of their families.
It’s a fact that since Herentals came into the top-flight league six years ago, we have never had even one report of players, who are employed by this club, downing tools because of unpaid salaries, bonuses or allowances.
The Students have become a model of how a small domestic Premiership club should be run – salaries, bonuses and allowances are all paid on time.
There is considerable investment in sports science at the Herentals clubs, the players routinely go to the gym, they have nutritionists, they have fully qualified support staff and all the modern things which help performance levels at professional clubs.
Benza’s investment is not only limited to his flagship football club in the Premiership, but he pumps money into the feeder Herentals team in Division One and the feeder Herentals team in Division Two.
He runs more than 50 colleges and, at each colleague, there is a football team which also takes a considerable chunk of his investment into the game.
These colleges are spread across the country and that means his investment, into football, is not only limited to the capital but is spread across the nation and involves boys and girls.
Then, you have the Herentals Queens who have now, within a short period of time, earned their stripes to even represent the country in a regional football competition.
For me, this is not the work of a man who wants to stroke his ego.
This is the work of a man who is deeply committed to the development of football in this country and rather than subject him to the nonsense of ridiculing him, we should be commending him for his contribution to the good health of our game.
If it costs about US$30 000 to run a domestic Premiership team every month, how much is Benza spending across all the football portfolios that he runs, from the colleges to the Queens? That should be a huge piece of investment and it’s not found in someone who is just trying to stroke his ego.
It is found in someone who has a real love affair with football and, in the past half-a-dozen years, Benza has shown that he is a true friend of our national game.
I still remember that road trip, which Kalisto Pasuwa and his Warriors took from Harare to Blantyre, on that Munorurama bus, after they had been failed by men who came pretending to be true friends of our game.
Now, you have the Herentals Queens flying into Malawi and some expect us to make sure that the man who made all that possible still has to be treated with suspicion, when it comes to his real mission, in our national game.
I refuse to be part of that band of haters.
Where they deliberately choose to see the darkness, I have been choosing to see the light.
And the light is provided by such beautiful images which the Herentals Queens have been posting since they started their journey to play in a CAF inter-club competition for the first time in their history.
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 still in the struggle.
Come on Chegutu Pirates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zaireeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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You can also interact with me on the ZTV football programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika on Wednesdays
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