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JUST when we thought Zimbabwe’s suspension from the global game by world football controlling body FIFA in 2022 was deterrent enough a punishment from which harsh lessons would be drawn, the national game seems still hell-bent on its penchant for self-destruction.
In the aftermath of the FIFA suspension which ran until July 11, 2023, the world body appointed a Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of ZIFA.
As we have often highlighted in this publication, Lincoln Mutasa’s Normalisation Committee, now have a storied tenure of failure on the mandate for which FIFA sent them into the ZIFA corridors of power.
And their shortcomings have had ripple effects on ZIFA’s affiliate members and other facets notably the Premier Soccer League, the Division One Leagues, referees and the national teams.
In an era when local football must now be more aggressive in its competition with other sport codes, varying forms of entertainment and e-sport, the country’s flagship sport is instead specialising in shooting own goals.
Any feel-good stories coming from the game such as Khama Billiat’s sensational return from self-imposed international retirement or the emergence of fine young talent from both the Diaspora and the home front, is being lighted by the negativity that seems to be following football every other week.
That the likes of Denver Mukamba are dazzling in the Northern Region Soccer League (NRSL) Division One League has been pushed into the shade as controversy after controversy rocks football.
That Simba Bhora in only their second year in the Premiership, stand on the threshold of grabbing the championship is being diluted by the negative vibes dogging our football.
For all the excitement that a riveting four-team title chase has brought into the NRSL, the dark spot has been the spate of abandoned matches and reports of assaults on match officials and even coaches.
A lively championship battle for the sole ticket to Premiership promotion has ensued, spiced up by the great ambitions of the two leading teams MWOS of Norton and Mabvuku-Tafara’s Scottland.
Regular campaigners Black Rhinos and Harare City are also in the mix in that bid for promotion.
But as admitted by both the NRSL leadership and some of the league’s top coaches, the increase in the incidents of violence have threatened to wreck all the good hard work that the country’s best run Division One League have put.
There have been saddening reports of referees being assaulted in Mhangura, Karoi and at Shamva Mine.
The referees have not been Saints either in the mess amid worrying revelations that some clubs and club officials conspired to engage d in corrupt practices, enticing the match officials to manipulate the outcomes of games in their favour.
Similar reports of blatant biased officiating have been reported in the Eastern, Central and Southern Region Division One Leagues.
Now that does not paint a good enough picture to lure more corporates to go into bed with football.
We call upon those involved in the leadership and officiating of matches in the country’s four Division One leagues to ensure that only the best teams based on performance on the pitch and not underhand dealings, win through and get promoted into the Premiership.
The Premiership by virtue of being the top-flight are expected to be the trendsetters for local football but that have of late done little to justify their lofty status.
As reported elsewhere in this edition, the PSL yesterday slapped Simba Bhora and Highlanders with US$6 000 fines each for the crowd trouble that rocked their Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final match at Wadzanai stadium in Shamva.
As if the skirmishes by the clubs set of fans in the terraces was not enough, match-day referee Cecil Gwezera and his assistant Zondzi Ngosana made a diabolical penalty call against Highlanders defender Peter Muduhwa that eventually led to Bosso walking of the game in protest.
Resultantly the game was abandoned and the kind of circus as witnessed in Shamva has only added to making Zimbabwean football a laughing stock.
The PSL have in the last two seasons being handing out huge penalties for any transgressions to the league’s rules and regulations but the fines just do not seem to be deterrent enough.
From dealing with the hooligan element in the game, the PSL are now confronted with the cancer of corruption eating into the men and women entrusted with being football’s arbiters — the referees.
We believe that Mutasa’s ZIFA must call for an urgent and honest discussion of key stakeholders about the incidents of corruption and violence at football before a life is lost and before the situation spirals out of control.
That the Normalisation Committee have remained silent raises eyebrows when ZIFA are supposed to be the mother body and should be demanding explanations and reports from the PSL, the Division One Leagues and the referees.
Zimbabwean football has already lost enough in the period during which we were under FIFA and the biggest legacy reform the Normalisation Committee can leave in the game is ensuring there are water tight systems that do not allow the kind of madness we are witnessing.
The national game surely cannot afford to press another self-destructive button.
Online Reporter