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The country’s football controlling body added their voice to the raging debate over Dynamos’ intention to withdraw from the Champions League and urged the club’s management to avoid making “a rash and emotional decision” to snub the continental game.
Jonathan Mashingaidze, Zifa chief executive, yesterday urged the DeMbare executive to take their time and avoid making a rash decision to snub the continental game but instead use their recent failure on the African Safari as a wake-up call to the challenges that the club and the national game needs to overcome.
Dynamos chairman Kenny Mubaiwa, speaking moments after the Glamour Boys crashed out of the 2013 Champions League at Rufaro on Sunday, revealed that his club would take a break from participating in the tournament even if the Harare giants win the domestic championship this year.
Mubaiwa said their sabbatical would be, at least, for a year.
The popular Harare side crashed out at the first round stage after falling to Tunisian outfit Club Athletic Bizertin.
DeMbare had been hoping to overturn a 0-3 first leg deficit they incurred in Bizertin but Callisto Pasuwa’s men could only manage a narrow 1-0 triumph at Rufaro to bow out 3-1 on aggregate.
Mubaiwa said they would use their self-imposed exile from the Champions League to try and build a stronger side that would reach the mini-league stage of the tournament.
It is Mubaiwa’s contention that Dynamos should forfeit their Champions League slot even if Pasuwa and his men claim their third successive Castle Lager Premiership title at the end of this season.
“It is the third time we have failed to reach the mini league phase bowing out at the first round, so this time around if we win the league title we will not participate but would rather wait and go when we are ripe with a strong squad, maybe in 2015 if we would have managed to win the league and a ticket to play in Africa,’’ Mubaiwa said.
Mubaiwa also said they wanted to use their time away from the continental game to try and work on retaining star players to other leagues particularly the South African Premiership.
“We want to and we have to raise finds so that our players do not get taken by South African clubs because the only issue is about money.
“If we manage to do that it means we will be able to keep a team together for a longer time than the present situation where at the end of each season we are losing our best players,’’ Mubaiwa said.
Mashingaidze, however, offered a different opinion and argued that it would be unfortunate for the national game and for the Dynamos brand if the Glamour Boys abandoned the continental game.
The Zifa chief executive said such clubs like Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United and any other team that would have won the championship or the biggest knockout competition — the Mbada Diamonds Cup — needed to be regular participants in the Champions League or the Confederation Cup.
Mashingaidze said international football provided local clubs and their players with a platform to gauge their progress or lack of it against other teams from other countries on the continent.
“It would not be good for Dynamos as a club and it would not be healthy for the national game at large if Dynamos, or any team that qualifies to play Champions League or Confederation Cup football, did not take part because there are a lot of benefits to be reaped from these tournaments.
“Teams like Dynamos, Highlanders, CAPS United are the league’s flag bearers whose performances also reflect on the state of the national team so it would be a huge blow if none of them do not take part in continental competitions.
“One of the reasons we set up a Football Trust is for it to help our clubs in Africa too because we know that such competitions add value to the national game.
“We are all obviously disappointed that Dynamos did not proceed to the mini league stage of the competition as we had hoped but we should look at the broader picture and also realise that the challenge for them is to actually revisit their development programmes.
“Fifa came up with a programme for professionalism so that clubs can operate like business entities and they can come up with a three year plan which includes operating like a club and a not a team with sound junior polices.
“They must ensure that they are not always buying players at the start of every year or getting players on loan, I recall that at one stage we had one of the top clubs which had nearly the whole first team players on loan and that is not healthy.
“It will not help them to get players who are only there for six months or just a season’s loan and the next year they have to rebuild because the rebuilding exercise will never bear fruit,’’ Mashingaidze said.
Mashingaidze said although he acknowledged a host of challenges, especially funding, that local clubs faced, he argued that withdrawing from the tournaments would not bring in the money.
“The solution does not lie in withdrawing from the continental competitions because the club’s profile will go down too,” said Mashingaidze.
“Right now players aim to play in Africa and it gives them self actualisation. It is not peculiar to our players only, it is the same story in England, players want to join clubs that play in the Uefa Champions League or the Europa Cup.
“If you build a strong side from your own pool of players that know the culture of the club, you will have a fall-back position even if two or three players from that pool are snapped up by clubs in Europe or South Africa . . . so it shows that it is the supply line that should be strengthened, the cheque book should not be the solution.”
Mashingaidze said a holistic approach was needed in reviewing Dynamos’ slump in the Champions League over the last three years.
“As much as this defeat hurts it is a wake-up call for Dynamos and it should help correct the loopholes in their systems.
“Of course Champions League is expensive, Confederation Cup is expensive and even the World Cup is expensive for us at Zifa but to participate in such competitions is also a growth pathway which you can’t avoid.
“It is true that adequate resources are a big challenge and our football still needs strategic partnerships that ensure we have resources to retain key players but one of the important moves to retaining players is also playing the continental game.
“Dynamos can grow their fan base and business profile by playing international football. Sponsors also want mileage and companies like Mbada Diamonds and BancABC want visibility beyond just the local league games so pulling out would be stunting growth ,’’ Mashingaidze said.
The Zifa chief executive also revealed that Cosafa were planning to hold a Cosafa Cup for top clubs in the region, a move he felt could also benefit the local teams if it comes to fruition.
Dynamos, who at the peak of their powers reached the 1998 Champions league final, have been on a decline on the continental stage in the last three years.
After ending a decade’s absence from the Champions League game, Dynamos returned with a bang in 2008, when David “Yogi’’ Mandigora’s class defied all odds and stormed into the semi-finals in which they lost to Cotonsport Garoua of Cameroon.
In that year, Dynamos worked their way past Royal Leopards of Swaziland in the preliminary round, eliminated Mozambique’s Costa Do Sol in the first round and sensationally dumped Tunisian giants Etoile Du Sahel in the second round.
They were then grouped with celebrated Egyptian giants Zamalek and Ah Ahly as well Cote d’Ivoire ’s ASEC Mimosa in the mini-league but DeMbare continued with their fairy tale and advanced to the last four together with group winners and eventual champions Al Ahly.
The following year, Dynamos managed a place in the mini league stages under Elvis Chiweshe but finished bottom of the group that was won by eventual champions TP Mazembe.
Dynamos strong performances in that period did not go unnoticed at Caf level as it helped Zimbabwe secure a second Champions League and another Confederation Cup slot.
Online Reporter