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Langton Nyakwenda
FOR the past decade, Highlanders have played second fiddle on both the transfer market and field of play.
They have endured the pain caused by a limited budget, while emerging giants Chicken Inn, FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum have enjoyed the fruits that come with financial stability.
The last time Bosso really challenged for the title was in 2012 and 2013, when they lost the championship battles to rivals Dynamos on goal difference. Since then, the Bulawayo giants have managed a top-four finish only once, in 2016. In contrast, Chicken Inn, FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum have enjoyed varying success during the period.
The Gamecocks won the league title in 2015, before FC Platinum ruled the roost for four consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2022.
Ngezi took the mantle last year.
Worryingly for the Bosso family, their team is now entering an 18th straight season without a league championship, having won their last in 2006 under Methembe Ndlovu.
Defender Andrew Mbeba, who was selected amongst the Soccer Stars of the Year last season, was only six-years-old at that time.
Highlanders are now struggling to retain their star players, let alone attract top players, while their once-famed junior development system is no longer producing gems.
Former club chief executive officer Nhlahla Dube summed up Highlanders’ predicament in an article in The Sunday Mail in 2019, which still resonates with what is currently happening at Bosso.
“We deliberately try to live within our means and sometimes it means letting players move on,” Dube said in February 2019.
That was soon after the club had lost the influential trio of Gabriel Nyoni, Honest Moyo and Newman Sianchali. Bosso have continued to lose key players in recent years as they struggle to meet players’ demands.
After failing to acquire game-changing players at the beginning of the 2023 season, the Highlanders executive also fell short during the mid-season transfer window.
They could not support then-coach Brito’s quest to land top striker Obriel Chirinda from Bulawayo Chiefs.
At that point, Bosso had gone for 17 games unbeaten and looked well-poised to end their drought.
Financial stability at the club is, therefore, a major talking point ahead of the Highlanders executive committee elections set for early next month. Incumbent Johnfat Sibanda, former chairperson Kenneth Mhlope and ex-Highlanders supporters’ South African Chapter chair Nodumo Nyathi are in the race.
Mhlope, who briefly served on the ZIFA board under interim president Gift Banda, emphasised the need for Highlanders to address the financial issues.
He was the boss when Highlanders won the Chibuku Super Cup in 2019.
“The challenge is, of course, that our competitors have been developing and becoming attractive mainly due to financial stability.
“So, we need to find a remedy to this challenge, and do so decisively and bravely,” Mhlope said. Highlanders, he added, needed to open more avenues for revenue apart from their traditional sponsorship deals.
Bosso’s sponsorship deal with energy giants Sakunda Holdings expired at the end of last season but there are reports suggesting it could be extended, along with that of their rivals Dynamos.
During his first stint as chairperson, Mhlope tried to get Highlanders to venture into mining between 2018 and 2021.
“We took a brave decision to investigate the possibility of acquiring a mining claim, leveraging on the strategic national brand of the club,” he said.
“The Special Grant covering 11 blocks was granted by the Government. Our idea was to seek partnership with mining interests and concerns so that actual mining would be done on a partnership basis at a commercial scale.
“It’s unfortunate that the way we envisaged it then and the network we had created did not find purchase.
“However, it’s not lost as the grant still subsists and progress can still be achieved.
“My executive had become very dexterous in creating a broad matrix of resourcing the club through both traditional sponsorship and out-of-the-box commercial avenues, and this proved to be an answer for our needs and weaknesses.
“This is how we achieved traction with re-grassing our training fields, fixing club transportation challenges and other recurrent expenses.”
Development squad
He also spoke about the need for the club to work on its junior policy to reduce the cost of buying players.
“In 2018, we strategically created a process of rejuvenating our club recruitment and reconnecting with our traditional style of play, albeit with a touch of modernisation both in training and playing,” he continued.
“We brought together a team of coaches in the senior men’s team and youth development football made up largely of former Highlanders players, because we felt that they were better equipped with institutional memory and they would quickly understand and implement what we sought to do.
“We insisted that the coaches had to assess and promote players who had the Bosso DNA from youth football; that is, from both the Under-18 and Bosso 90.
“We set a target for ourselves to appear in at least one major trophy in the second season as the players matured.”
They also targeted the 2021 seasonas the one they would challenge for the championship.
Mhlope says Covid-19 had “scuttled those plans”.
He, however, hopes to secure a fresh mandate to put the plans in motion.
X: @LangtonGuraz
Online Reporter