adminCAPS United should be celebrating their Golden Jubilee next year — 50 years of existence in which they have created memories, which can last a life-time.
Makepekepe, Shaisa Mufaro, Green Machine, Manchester Road Boys, they have been, for most of their time in the trenches of domestic football, a big part of the game.
Joel Shambo, Shacky Tauro, Stanford “Stix” M’tizwa, Friday Phiri, Duncan Ellison, Brenna Msiska, Joe Mugabe, Stewart Murisa, Alois Bunjira, different generations of great players who served this huge football franchise.
Steve Kwashi, Charles Mhlauri, Ashton “Papa” Nyazika, Lloyd Chitembwe, Freddie Mkwesha, to name but a few, great coaches who, at different stages in the life of the Green Machine, made an enduring impact.
It has been an amazing journey for the capital’s second biggest football club, a member of the so-called Big Three – which features Dynamos and Highlanders – five league championships, including back-to-back success stories, have been the high point of their adventure. For a long time, especially in the ‘‘80s and 90s’’, they were the undoubted Cup Kings, the specialists when it came to winning the major knockout tournaments, the one club which, more often than not, stood standing in the winners’ enclosure, when the curtain came down.
The football was beautiful and they had a huge fan base, not as big as the one which has always stood in the corner of their biggest rivals Dynamos, but a sizable one, which stood behind them, in good and bad times.
Against such a background, the CAPS United family should have been looking forward to their 50th anniversary with a sense of both excitement and optimism.
But, the reality is that there are many who now even fear whether the Green Machine will last that long, to enable their family to celebrate the Golden Jubilee, next year.
Why?
It’s an open secret that CAPS United are probably facing their biggest threat, to their very survival, right now.
They have serious financial challenges, with the huge cost that comes with running a huge club like CAPS United becoming too much to bear for the club’s two owners – Farai Jere and Nhamo Tutisani.
This has resulted in the players staging frequent strikes, to try and push for the payment of their dues and, in the process, deflecting their attention, when it comes to preparing for their league assignments.
Now, CAPS United find themselves having to deal with the crisis of losing five matches on the bounce, which has sucked the players’ confidence, and dragged the Green Machine closer to relegation.
If they don’t get a corporate partner, there is a real possibility CAPS United could collapse and a big part of Zimbabwean football, in terms of its history, will be lost.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter