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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
PERCHED on its remote island of chaos and controversy, far away from the mainland where the real football is played, and where rich dividends are plucked, one gets the feeling all is well in the domestic game.
And, the game’s leaders are dancing, it appears, to Bobby McFerrin’s ‘88 hit song, ‘‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy.’’
Even as football is haemorrhaging elsewhere, with its traditional financial support streams running dry, and belts being tightened.
And, even as the football world now comes to terms with the harsh reality of the economic impact of COVID-19 on the game. Yesterday, Orlando Pirates administrative manager, Floyd Mbele, said he didn’t even know if the club will exist after the crisis.
“What if we come back (from the lockdown) and four or five players have contracted this (virus), and we lose them?’’ he told KickOff.com
“Will there even be Pirates after the lockdown? Because, what if the sponsors take the money? Will there be Pirates for me to plan on?
‘‘Will SuperSport (MultiChoice) still want to come (and sponsor), because they may feel there’s nothing for the league to show?’’
This week, the chief executive of English Championship side Luton, the town where former Dynamos captain Memory Mucherahowa has turned into his adopted home, pressed the alarm bells by highlighting the challenges clubs now have to deal with.
Gary Sweet issued a chilling warning that the future of clubs “at every level” are at risk unless there is “a swift and material aid package” from the game’s authorities to deal with the impact of Covid-19.
“Lower-league clubs (in England) are vulnerable because they are so reliant upon ticket income and many Championship clubs are vulnerable due to the severe over-stretching of expenditure,” he said.
‘‘This situation is going to hurt us, so I dread to think how it will impact some clubs.”
The warning kept despite the clubs in the English Football and National League getting an advance £125m in payments from the Premiership to help them deal with the impact of COVID-19.
While this might sound like events unfolding far away from home, they have a message to the domestic game because, if those well-resourced clubs are now beginning to feel the pain, what about the financially-troubled local clubs?
A top-flight league where three of its newsboys needed an extension, with two even going to the extent of sending around a begging bowl to some good Samaritans, just to find the funds to complete their affiliation to the league.
Some isolated, but powerful voices of rebellion, have started asking valid questions on sensitive issues like whether the top-flight flight still provides any return on investment? However, such concerns have been greeted by a wall of silence, even when there hasn’t been an official confirmation as to whether the league’s marriage with Delta will be extended for yet another term after its expiry last December.
Even when there hasn’t been an official confirmation as to whether the marriage between NetOne and two of the league’s Big Three — CAPS United and Highlanders — which provided the two clubs with a lifeline, will be extended, and if so, for how long and how much?
Even when the boardroom upheaval at NetOne, where the future of the company’s suspended football-crazy chief executive, Lazarus Muchenje, remains uncertain, have provided a hint of trouble in paradise to a partnership in which the firm has been bankrolling the salaries of the two giants’ players and coaching staff.
Even when the same company poured substantial financial resources into another member of the top-flight league, Black Rhinos, last year in which the firm took care of the welfare of the players.
Amid a wave of wage cuts, furlongs and reduced budgets, as giant football clubs around the world battle to find a way to survive, the silence on the domestic front has been deafening.
The grass, it appears, remains green here at home and everything is under control. But, the grim reality paints a different picture of a game that could be choked by the challenges it will confront when all this is over. Having retreated from the front-line, as they usually do in times of crisis, our football leaders are seemingly spreading the message there is no reason for their constituency to either panic or be worried.
In a world now dominated by virtual meetings, as leaders explore survival strategies in a globe that has changed, the silence on the domestic football front has been as confusing as it disturbing.
Instead, the voices of concern are coming from others, former leaders of the clubs like Raymond Majongwe, who one had a stint as the Dynamos secretary-general.
‘‘How will football clubs survive in this era of Covid19? Are we planning around this?’’ Majongwe asked on Twitter on Tuesday and tagged CAPS United, Chicken Inn, Dynamos, Highlanders and FC Platinum into the conversation.
‘‘Just saying it’s time to plan and engage, as a former administrator at Dynamos I can imagine what will happen to these Clubs. I see disaster.
‘‘Clubs will fold and players will go.’’
Majongwe did not get the response he was expecting from the clubs but his concerns caught the attention of some key stakeholders in the game like former Warriors fitness coach, Gerald Maguranyanga.
‘‘Soccer clubs ALREADY reeling, shoved into the corner,’’ said Maguranyanga. ‘‘Can they fight back? Most local clubs subsisting on an unprofitable revenue non-strategy that relied on “gates”, well-wishers.
‘‘It can’t (work anymore). The few relying on corporates face an uncertain future still.’’
But, while those outside the game’s leadership are discussing, and wondering how local football will confront the challenges that will emerge after the COVID-19 crisis, those tasked with leading the game on a national level have been quiet.
The fans don’t even know whether it will be possible to have a full season, in the event the matches finally get underway, or how — in the event that there is a shortened version of the campaign — things would be worked out.
‘‘It’s the kind of conversation that you expect to hear because it’s about providing leadership, looking at the pros and cons, weighing the advantages and disadvantages, of whatever you have in mind,’’ said Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association founding leader, Eddie ‘‘Mbomba’’ Nyatanga.
‘‘There is so much uncertainty right now and we don’t even know how the campaign will pan out this season or how other challenges will be dealt with.’’
Online Reporter