adminVictoria Falls town at one time had four clubs competing in the Zifa Southern Region Division One League, namely Kujatana, Falls United, Sao Paulo and Discovery but now not even a single club is in existence, something that should worry the soccer motherbody, Zifa.
Rural Tsholotsho has a Division One club in the league.
Soccer administrators and coaches interviewed separately by Chronicle Sport in the resort town were all in agreement that while pride and selfishness among club owners and administrators could have been the main reason why the town’s representative clubs in the second tier league continuously failed to get the sole ticket to the elite league or even disbanded, lack of sound sponsorship from the various companies that are getting enormous revenue from the locals was the major cause for the plight of the clubs.
Acting Zifa Southern Region chairman and a respected football administrator in the town, Morgan “Gazza” Dube did not mince his words when asked why such a world acclaimed town does not have a Premiership club, let alone a Division One club.
“The talk of talent is out of the question because it’s in abundance, now and again we have contributed players to the Premiership.
“The big problem is the business community that operates in this town, most if not all of them don’t feel indebted to the community simply because their interests are somewhere else,” said Dube.
He said once the corporate sector in the town begins to know that they have a social responsibility and pour a few cents that they are getting, the Victoria Falls community will then realise their dream of having Premiership football.
“You can imagine the amount of business that they will get if we have Premiership football here, teams coming in every fortnight to play and that means they will land at the airport, be picked up by a tour company and book in one of the many hotels and lodges in the town,” reasoned Dube.
Dumile Mpofu, founder member and coach of the now defunct Discovery Football Club, was of the opinion that clubs need to be sincere and stick to the resolutions made during meetings.
“It was realised that we were not solving anything by having many clubs in Division One and so we resolved that if one club makes it, we should all support it by providing it with the best players so that it makes an impression in the league but some clubs are not doing that simply because of pride and selfishness,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu’s remarks were echoed by the town’s oldest club, Dynamite’s secretary general Mthandazo Sibanda who called on clubs to be united and approach the issue of non sponsorship with one voice.
“If we all rally behind the team at the top, it becomes easy for sponsors to also feel indebted but many teams in the league confuse potential sponsors, who might argue and say they can not sponsor a single team yet all clubs are from Victoria Falls”.
Ntuthuko Moyo, former chairman for Falls United said such pride and selfish behaviour was changing but challenged the community to also join in the party and support the team that will be in the league at that time, by so doing, sponsors will also be attracted as they will be assured of their mileage.
Online Reporter