Mapeza is right! ‘We’re not ready for international football’

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

NORMAN Mapeza is not just an ordinary football coach, he is a legend of the game locally, a very successful one at that and deserves all the respect he gets and should be given an ear when he speaks.

This is a man who played football at the highest level in Europe for clubs such as Galatasaray. The former national team captain is one of the most decorated football coaches – he has won four domestic topflight championships – one with defunct Monomotapa and three with FC Platinum who have won four successive titles.

History will always remember the work of “Muchina Wemajuzi” as he is fondly known for his role in transforming FC Platinum and Zimbabwean football.

Having had a dance with the senior men’s national soccer team as a player and coach, Mapeza was right when he said “we’re not ready for continental football” as he responded to questions on his views about FC Platinum not participating in the Caf Champions League due to Zimbabwe’s ban from Fifa.

“It’s sad for our football, but I have to be honest, as much as we want to compete in the Caf Champions League, we are still lagging behind. If Zimbabwe was not suspended by Fifa we were going to play but deep down in my heart I know we are not ready for that stage. I have seen top teams in Africa and we are not at that level.

“If you look at Morocco and where they are in terms of football, they are too far away. What their national team did at the World Cup shows a clear picture of the work they are doing. We are still far behind.

“Of course we want to go to the African Safari but does it make sense for us to go out there and get hammered five or six goals? What will people say? We are not yet ready. We have to start from somewhere and go step by step up the ladder. In football, it’s like a graph you start from stage zero going up.

“We don’t want to go there when I still feel we are not there yet. We can talk of getting experience but do you think you can get experience when you get hammered 10, psychologically you get affected,” Mapeza said.

He was frank, but for some who don’t agree with the notion that Zimbabwean football needs deep cleansing and are against the Sports and Recreation Commission’s (SRC) stance of intervening so that the country’s football emerges stronger, Mapeza has sold the struggle. The general feeling is that Mapeza adyisa team, (uMapeza usedlise ithimu).

Zimbabwe marks a year in international football isolation later this month and Zifa has been working on first setting up proper structures to be readmitted. For international football to obtain, at the barest minimum, the country needs stadia that comply with Fifa regulations.

So if Fifa lifts the ban tomorrow, will Zimbabwe then play Afcon qualifiers? Where will they play? Is there a national football strategy to follow or back up development of the game and has it been sold to football stakeholders?

We need to have a national football vision and come up with a clear football development strategic plan. Development programmes must start from the grassroots, youth and up to professional levels for both men and women. It remains to be seen if the Zifa board will be able to establish the provincial age groups squad that will form the pool for national teams.

There is a need to come up with structures run by properly trained administrators. The Government has to come up with a clear National Sports Policy and Statutory Instruments that require the establishment of sports clubs, promotion of youth development in partnership with schools where the majority of youngsters are. Incentivising sponsors with tax rebates can also uplift football and the sports industry.

Now that the Restructuring Committee has presented its report, the SRC now needs to persuade FIFA to look into Zimbabwean football and even provide assistance. Some are of the view that a normalisation committee is needed to give football a better restart, others believe that the normalisation committee must come if the present interim Zifa board fails to deliver.

The SRC has been blunt that they want football to adhere to the constitution, something the interim Zifa board is working on. The Zifa board is faced with a dilemma in applying the constitution, with the latest being regions’ refusal to form a National League.

But the question is, are these regions, which are blocking the implementation of what is in the constitution, clean? Are the same regions adhering to the constitution and do they hold general meetings regularly as dictated by the constitution to discuss and formulate policies or strategies to improve football? 

There were reports that the Southern Region has not paid affiliation fees to Zifa which begs the question why they are allowed to partake in policy issues when they are not of good standing? What does the constitution say about the Northern Region case where there have not had elections to fill the chairman’s post?

The four regions’ top dogs have not given dates of their extraordinary general meetings where the National League was an agenda, yet they claim they have consulted with their clubs. The National League is legit and constitutional as it has been there since 2013. So what other congress adoption is required?

As a matter of precedence, the PSL has run a full calendar without sponsorship and majority of those regional leagues have been operating without sponsorship, so, why are the regions reportedly setting a pre-condition of sponsorship? In any case, while sponsorship is fundamental, it is not a constitutional requirement.

Moving over to the implementation of club licensing, which was initiated in 2007 but enforcement only started in 2017 with the standardisation of coaches. There are cries of selective application of club licensing but this is because there are major stages that were omitted.

As it is, there’s a full-time club licensing manager to see that every organ conforms to club licensing. — @ZililoR.