Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
FOR the 10th year in a row, NONE of the Big Three clubs — Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United — will win the league championship.
It’s been a decade since the biggest prize on the domestic football scene, the one which really matters, was won by a member of the Big Three.
CAPS United won that title in 2016, Bosso finished third and DeMbare finished fifth.
The barren decade marks the longest period ever recorded, in the 64-year history of the domestic championship, without a member of the Big Three being crowned champion.
It’s actually twice the number of years which, until now, had gone without any member of the Big Three winning the league championship.
That was the five years between 1971 and 1975 when the league was won by Salisbury Sables (twice), Arcadia United, Metal Box and Chibuku.
CAPS United, who were formed in 1973, were not even part of the top-flight league by then.
Let’s try to give this a little bit of context, especially to help the new generation of TikTok fans who were not there before the turn of the millennium.
In the ‘80s, all the domestic league titles were won by Dynamos except only on three occasions when the championship was won by Black Rhinos (twice) and Zimbabwe Saints (once).
Even for Rhinos to win those two league titles they had to raid the Dynamos and CAPS United camps and take some of their best players like Hamid Dhana and Stix Mutizwa.
In the ‘90s, all the domestic league titles were won by the Big Three members except one, which was won by Black Aces in 1992.
After the turn of the millennium, things started to change and, for the first time since Independence, more than two clubs, outside the Big Three, were able to win the championship.
AmaZulu, Monomotapa, Gunners and Motor Action were all crowned champions in the first decade since the turn of the millennium.
But, still, the Big Boys were always there and thereabout.
CAPS United won the championship twice, Bosso won it three times and DeMbare won it once in 2007.
From 2011 to 2016, Dynamos won the championship four times in a row, CAPS United won once and the only club to break their dominance was Chicken Inn, who won in 2015.
So, in those 36 years, since Independence, the members of the Big Three won TWENTY-SEVEN league titles in what was an extraordinary display of dominance.
The only long barren spell they endured, with none of them winning the league, in those 36 years, was the THREE years between 2008 and 2010 when Monomotapa, Gunners and Motor Action won the title.
Now, in three months’ time, the clock will mark that a DECADE has passed since any member of the Big Three was crowned champions.
The Green Machine won’t win the league this year, despite a promising start, and this means a full decade would have passed since their last success story.
The Glamour Boys won’t win the league this year, despite thrusting themselves within touching distance of the leaders midway during the campaign, and this means a DOZEN years would have passed since their last triumph.
Bosso won’t win the league this year, despite having probably the most exciting player in the league in Mongameli Tshuma, and this means TWENTY years would have passed since they were champions.
For a club, celebrating their Centenary year, it’s quite disappointing that they were never in the race.
At least, either Bosso or CAPS could win the Chibuku Super Cup because one of them will be in the final and the Green Machine could win the Munhumutapa Challenge Cup.
But, they both know, it’s the league championship that really matters.
I’M REALLY WORRIED ABOUT DEMBARE, BOSSO
Farai Jere is really trying his best to try and ensure that CAPS United can compete with the newboys who have shaken the league so much that it is barely recognisable from what it was just three years ago.
Maybe, that explains why the Green Machine can still dream of double silverware this season and, until the Wallace Magalane tsunami shook them, they were well poised to challenge for league honours.
Maybe, that also explains why they are the last, among the Big Three, to win the league championship, and also feature in the CAF Champions League.
It’s a tournament which, for decades, was associated with Dynamos, when it came to Zimbabwean interests, and to their credit the Glamour Boys did a hell lot of a good job flying our flag.
Now, just like dinosaurs, they have become extinct on the CAF Champions League terrain where, in the past three years, we have been represented by Ngezi Platinum Stars, Simba Bhora and Scottland.
I’m not really worried about CAPS United.
As long as Jere is still alive and his businesses are thriving, the Green Machine are in safe hands.
And, Jere is also doing a good job of grooming his son Brendon to fill his big shoes, both at the club and in business, when he is not around anymore.
But, I’m really worried about Dynamos and Highlanders.
These two giants remain stuck in the past, holding on to memories from a bygone era, trapped in dreams that those good, old days will return even when the signs are very clear that the world has changed.
The brutality of today’s world, and today’s economics, tell us that no football club in this part of the globe can thrive while basing its ownership structure on a community base.
Communities are fine but they don’t pay the bills.
And, in an age where the Hardrock chairman can spend the weekend in Portugal, tying up deals with Benfica and then fly to Harare to watch a midweek game against Scottland, there is nowhere these giants can compete.
Something will just have to give because these giants can’t be run on nostalgia while everything around them, the competition, the landscape, you name it, is changing.
The English teachers taught us in primary school that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
It was confusing, at the start.
But we all now know what it means and the sooner those who make key decisions at these two giants understand this then the better for these institutions.
THE GAME HAS CHANGED, THE GIANTS SHOULD CHANGE, TOO
Orlando Pirates, who were run along these community team-based lines for the first 53 years of their existence, were bankrupt and facing a monumental collapse in 1989.
Then Irvin Khosa, who had been expelled from the club in 1982 after spending two years as its secretary, returned with a life-saving proposal in 1989.
After his expulsion from Pirates, he made a fortune in property and, armed with the finances to keep the Buccaneers afloat, he returned and decided to take over as the owner of the club.
By 1991, he had completed the process to own Pirates and, four years down the line, the Buccaneers became the first club from Southern Africa to be crowned champions of the continent.
In a way, Pirates look like Bosso – the black-and-white kit colours, the shield, the crossbones, the cross hands, you name it.
This week, my mind strayed a bit.
And, I began wondering what Dynamos would have been today if, for instance, Scott Swakupwanya had followed his heart and invested in the club he supported as a child.
He has told us, again and again, that he grew up as a DeMbare fan and that probably also influenced him in the primary blue colours he chose for his Scottland.
If, like Irvin Khoza with Pirates, he had chosen to invest in the Glamour Boys rather than forming his own club, how would DeMbare be looking today, how good would they be?
Imagine Knowledge and Walter Musona, Khama Billiat, Moses Shidolo, Emmanuel Jalai, Nelson Chadya, Kwakhe Twala, to name but a few, all playing for the Glamour Boys.
Imagine DeMbare going to have a training camp in South Africa just to prepare for a CAF Champions League game.
Imagine a DeMbare where someone like Tymon Machope is a substitute.
Imagine all the money which has flowed to the Scottland players, and coaches, more than US$200,000 in just a week, flowing into the hands of the DeMbare players, just as incentives.
Imagine with all that support from the stands, a guaranteed full house at Rufaro in every game because success at DeMbare tends to guarantee that, and you have a beast no one could challenge on the local front.
And, one which would be challenging well on the continent.
That is why I believe that someone like Brian Makwabarara, who has been keeping DeMbare afloat with his financial injections from his company AfricaBet, should be encouraged, rather than discouraged, from associating himself with the club.
This is not about emotions, it’s about reality.
The game has changed and so has the landscape.
These are not the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
If you doubt that, then ask yourself why DeMbare have not won the league in a DOZEN years.
And, why Bosso have not won the league in TWENTY years.
To God Be The Glory
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!
Antoniooooooooooooo!
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