Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
WEEKENDS are generally sporting days in Zimbabwe, with the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League matches being major Saturday and Sunday highlights.
This being the last weekend of 2019, Chronicle Sport takes a look at some of the year’s football highlights.
No doubt Zvishavane side FC Platinum exerted their presence in the “big” league by winning a third consecutive PSL title and earning the right to keep the trophy in their cabinet for good.
The platinum miners also managed to qualify for the Caf Champions League group stages for the second successive season.
FC Platinum have definitely emerged from the shadows of the so-called big teams and are clearly on a mission to dominate the local football landscape and they have the financial backing to achieve that feat
The way they wrestled the 2019 championship right under the nose of favourites Caps United at Makepekepe’s hunting ground, the National Sports Stadium, speaks volumes of FC Platinum’s character.
Caps United went into the final day of the season needing a win to claim the title while FC Platinum needed just a draw to return to Zvishavane with the cup.
The platinum miners were even reduced to 10 players but still put up an exhilarating show to win the tie 1-0 and with it the league title.
The traditional big clubs Dynamos and Highlanders couldn’t match FC Platinum and struggled for most of the season but however Bosso’s form peaked in the last four months of the season to lift the Chibuku Super Cup.
Bosso’s win of the Chibuku Super Cup cannot be mentioned without including the coming in of Dutch coach Hendrik Pieter de Jongh in September on a four-month contract.
De Jongh transformed lacklustre Bosso players into winners virtually overnight by his man management that instilled a winning mentality in them.
Highlanders had become pushovers and were wallowing in the relegation zone before De Jongh’s arrival, which changed everything. His style turned around their fortunes and they went on a remarkable unbeaten run only dented by a 0-1 loss to Bulawayo Chiefs in the second last game of the season. This fine run enabled Bosso to finish a respectable sixth on the league table.
They won all their games in the Chibuku Super Cup and lifted the trophy without conceding a goal.
Only one of the newly promoted sides, Manica Diamonds, out of the four survived the chop. Hwange (Southern Region), Mushowani (Northern Region) and the central region’s TelOne were relegated from the topflight. They were joined by Air Force of Zimbabwe side Chapungu to the unfashionable world of Division One football.
The relegation of TelOne and Chapungu, who were both on 40 points and just one below Yadah, who survived by a whisker, sparked debate about the number of teams being axed from the topflight league.
The PSL continues to have a big turnover, something that even Fifa described as “too much” for the development of the game.
Zifa councillors have been slow to amend association’s constitution to set up a National League, whose winner will be promoted to the PSL while the runner-up takes part in promotional play-offs. That way, the league will be more competitive and help improve standards.
Two Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services teams, Whawha from the Central Region and Tenax from Eastern Region, were promoted to the PSL.
It, however, remains to be seen if the two will be registered by Zifa since the Fifa Club Licensing tenets are against having teams owned by one entity in the same league.
Bulawayo City make a return to the topflight after bagging the Southern Region title, with army side Cranborne Bullets coming in on the Northern Region ticket. Cranborne Bullets become the second army side in the PSL after Black Rhinos.
On the Warriors’ front, Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas won Zimbabwe a ticket to next year’s Chan finals in Cameroon.
Antipas, who served as an interim coach, also guided the Warriors past the preliminary round of the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers at the expense of Somalia. The Gamecocks coach, whose contract with Zifa was up to the end of the year, also got four out of six points in the 2021 Afcon qualifiers, drawing 0-0 at home against Botswana before winning 2-1 against Zambia in Lusaka.
In June, Zimbabwe went to the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt where they embarrassingly failed to register a win despite having a very strong squad on paper.
Again, poor preparations were blamed for the Warriors’ dismal performance that saw them losing 1-0 to Egypt in the opening match, drawing 1-1 against Uganda before being humiliated 4-0 by DR Congo.
Besides the poor results under then coach Sunday Chidzambwa, Warriors players went on strike demanding that they be paid their dues before taking to the field and threatening not to fulfil their fixtures.
One of the positive highlights for the Warriors was Teenage Hadebe being spotted by European scouts, who got him a deal at Turkey’s Yeni Malatyaspor. The Makokoba-bred footie signed without going for trials.
Another Warrior, Marvelous Nakamba, made a “big” move after the Afcon finals, signing for English Premiership side Aston Villa for a fee believed to be in the region of £10 million from Belgium side Club Brugge.
Nakamba’s break into the highly marketed English Premiership saw him joining the likes of Peter Ndlovu, Bruce Grobbelaar and Benjani Mwaruwari as the only Zimbabweans that have played in the English Premier League.
The football review will be incomplete without the mention of the PSL breaking new ground by hosting the inaugural International Football Symposium in Victoria Falls in October.
World League Forum general secretary Jerome Perlemuter presented a paper on sports corporate governance and development while a La Liga Global Network delegate in South Africa, Enrique Suay, spoke on how football can realise its full commercial value using the Spanish League as a case study.
Other high-profile speakers that attended the conference were Cape Town-based Cameron Calder, managing director of Hype Sports, who presented a paper on driving fan engagement through digital technology.
Marc Juillerat, chief legal officer of the Swiss Football League, enlightened local administrators on club licensing benefits and the future of football.
World football governing body Fifa seconded its safety and security manager Lee Davidson to the symposium. Davidson presented a paper on managing safety and security at match venues.
There was the widespread row between Zifa and Bulawayo City Council over the switching of the Warriors’ Afcon qualifier against Botswana from Barbourfields Stadium to the National Sports Stadium over floodlights.
Zifa claimed BCC indicated that it couldn’t guarantee functionality of the stadium’s floodlights. Council hit back saying the association was informed that the floodlights were functional after tests were conducted and accused Zifa of moving the match to avoid paying the local authority for stadium hire.
A few weeks after the squabbling, the Caf grounds inspection team banned the use of the National Sports Stadium and Mandava Stadium for Caf approved matches while passing Barbourfields Stadium for meeting a minimum level.
As things stand, Bulawayo football fans will enjoy international football galore as the city has the only approved venue for such games unless swift renovations and improvements recommended by the Caf team are implemented at the National Sports Stadium, which has virtually monopolised all Warriors’ matches.
Online Reporter