League of the invincible

 

Ray Bande
Senior Reporter

 

LACK of corporate partnerships affecting the game of football, coupled with prohibitive costs of efficiently running a football club has left the ZIFA Eastern Region Division One League fast becoming a one-horse race where a well-funded club that eventually wins the championship is known from the start of the season.

Ideally, a league marathon race in a normal setup can hardly be predicted at the start, let alone in the middle of the season.

But the ZIFA Eastern Region flagship Division One League is fast turning into a league of the invincible after two teams that have been promoted in the recent seasons – Manica Diamonds and GreenFuel – appeared to have the champions’ tag right from the start of the season.

Both clubs went on to finish all their fixtures for the season without tasting defeats.

The list is longer than that.

Rewind a few years back, Triangle FC and their now defunct neighbours, Hippo Valley were both promoted into the Premier Soccer League after entirely dominating the Eastern Region Division One League season.

For most of these teams, the writing was on the wall, even at the start of the season that they would go all the way to win the league championship and the subsequent Premiership promotion.

The trend reflects badly on the level of competition in the league as it appears most teams are there just to make up numbers without any ambition and hope to win the coveted promotion into the elite Premier Soccer League.

To make matters worse, some teams fail to fulfil fixtures due to financial constraints, thereby gifting their opponents with points on a silver platter and negatively affecting the levels of competition in the league.

However, ZIFA Eastern Region chairman, Davison Muchena, who recently released the league’s 2023 soccer season roadmap which includes dates for training of club administrators, security officers, grounds inspection and annual tournament, refused to accept that the dominance of a single team in a particular season is an indication of low levels of competition in the league.

“I do not think the dominance of a single team in a particular season is an indication of low levels of competition in the league. For example, GreenFuel might have dominated and won promotion, but they did not get that easily.

“They had five draws and that is an indication of the presence of teams that matched their performance,” Muchena said.

He admitted that the difference in the club’s financial muscle also had an effect on GreenFuel’s performance.

“Football is not for the poverty stricken clubs. Look at how CAPS United performed in the just-ended Castle Premier Soccer League season. It is all about the challenges that they faced financially that left them struggling on the field of play. Tenax are not a bad team, but the club just did not have enough resources to motivate their players.

“Clubs like Manica Diamonds and GreenFuel did well to end the season unbeaten, simply because of the financial clout they have which enabled them to assemble experienced teams and also motivate their players,” he said.

Veteran football coach, Rodwell Dhlakama, said: “Teams like Manica Diamonds and Triangle perform consistently because everyone connected with them concentrate on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on and nothing will distract them from achieving their aims and objectives. Winning teams are goal-oriented. Losing teams lack focus.

“There are two fundamental factors that are key number. These include sponsorship and human resources that also include the technical team, players and management. It is easy to set targets when you have all these in place.

“For GreenFuel, it was a milestone achievement on the background of the location of the team. I am sure it is one team from a pure rural setting that has achieved this after Mhondoro Ngezi and St Paul’s Musani in Murehwa back then.

“The other factor is the level of competition from the other teams in the respective leagues. The question is; are poor clubs strong enough to try and wrestle something from the competitors or they are there to make up the numbers?”