adminFreedom Mutanda
IMAGINE watching a wrestling match pitting Hulk Hogan and ‘’Macho Man,’’ Randy Savage and you are eager-eyed to see who is going to come out the victor in such a fiercely contested match. You are on the edge of your seat and the gripping suspense makes you stand up to ‘’see closely’’ while other fans tell you to sit down. You sit down with a bit of misgiving.
Suddenly, Hulk Hogan who appeared to be winning the match rubs his eyes vigorously as if an insect has entered his eyes. At that moment, his adversary, Randy Savage, delivers a super kick onto his face and he falls awkwardly in the middle of the ring. He is pinned and the game is over.
Moments later, rumour swirls that the match had been programmed in such a way that Hulk Hogan must lose the match in a particular fashion. The ‘loser’ stood to pocket money for doing such an unsporting deed.
Will the fans come in their droves to witness another match in the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)? No.
Indeed, the above, is just a hypothetical phenomenon but it goes to the underbelly of professional sports. Winning these days is everything in professional sports.
Some of the icons in athletics who blew us away with their breath-taking exploits were reprimanded years later, for taking performance enhancement drugs during their peak years and they were made to forfeit their gold medals and records.
Marion Jones, with her smiling face, was the embodiment of a star athlete. Ben Johnson, the disgraced Canadian 100m champion in the 1988 Olympics games is a case in point.
The two were disgraced after they agreed to accusations that their careers were tainted by drugs that saw their careers soar to greater heights.
Bruce Grobelaar, the Zimbabwe iconic goalkeeper, who is an Anfield legend in his own right, was fingered in a match-fixing scandal in the 1990s and he escaped censure, but for the supporters of the team whose anthem is ‘’you will never walk alone’’, it was a sobering thought that a goalie who has served them all that while, could have made them fail to win crucial matches. Unfortunately, the accusations came when Liverpool was on the declining side and some of the supporters could have felt Bruce had helped in the decline.
Bruce Grobelaar was acquitted when the matter went to court. Match fixing has been there since professional sports began but it is very difficult to prove. I remember a goalkeeper who came to testify in Grobelaar’s trial saying that the goals scored against the Reds’ goalkeeper were genuine ones; he was referring to the alleged rigged matches that Liverpool lost. Therefore, it is incorrect to suggest a person is a match fixer without concrete proof to that effect.
Fidza, as Philip Chiyangwa is affectionately known, in his bid to heal the wounds, decided to offer an olive branch to Henrietta Rushwaya, the alleged mastermind of the infamous Asiagate match fixing scandal that rocked Zimbabwe some years ago and some people blamed the Cuthbert Dube led administration of being over-zealous and now like a bolt of lightning, the ZIFA boss told us ‘’we ain’t seen nothing yet.’’
Big boss man and his acolytes are alleged to be working in cahoots with Asian betting syndicates to ensure results in the forthcoming Afcon qualifiers against Swaziland are fixed to suit their score line. We are flabbergasted that a few rotten apples could be bought by thirty pieces of silver to fix matches. Match fixing starts from the lower levels, believe you me. Some years ago, my Under 20 soccer team had lost the first two games and drew the third. In the fourth and final game, our opponents needed a draw for them to advance to the next round. My team played for pride only. The sports director of that other team approached me and asked me to ‘’give’’ him the game since even If my team won, it did not have a snowball’s chance in hell to progress.
‘’No, my friend, let your boys and mine slug it out and may the best team win,’’ I said, dismissively.
My team won the game 2-0 and the other team and mine bowed out of the tournament.
During the hyper-inflationary era, it is alleged that there were teams that were so desperate to get into Division One and ultimately get to the promised- land, the Premier League.
To get there, the clubs, allegedly bought soccer referees some groceries on Friday before a match featuring the team; some people say the clubs even bribed the players from the other team to ensure success.
Those episodes were in Manicaland. Eventually, some teams felt playing away from home was a foregone conclusion-defeat. Dubious penalty decisions were made and frustrations and exasperations were the order when one played in the provincial capital.
The above could be ramblings of sour losers.
However, there was a game played at Mutare Boys’ High School grounds in 2006 that I remember vividly.
It featured Silo Power FC and Frontier Steel FC.
The latter had taken an early lead; its defenders committed a foul outside the penalty box and the referee of the day duly awarded a direct free kick against Frontier Steel. The late Moses Dzungwa curled the ball beyond the reach of the goalkeeper and the whole team celebrated.
Shockingly, the referee signaled for a re-take arguing that he had awarded an indirect free kick which requires two players to kick the ball. The referee was biased in his interpretation of the law; if the player had hit the ball straight goal-wards without passing another player, he should have awarded a free kick to Frontier Steel. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, but there is an inkling that he could have been against Silo Power clinching the sole slot to Division One football. At that time, Silo Power and Frontier Steel were running neck and neck towards winning the Manicaland Division Two championship. Frontier Steel won the title.
If there is alleged match fixing in Division Two, do you expect high stakes games to be immune to tampering of results? It is highly unlikely.
Names banded around said to be at the crux of match fixing make Zimbabweans cry because they have been models for the youths. Money is the root of all evil. Granted, we are in the throes of an economic meltdown ad the drought makes the situation worse. Saul Chaminuka, the Warriors assistant coach, lamented the pittance that payers get at the end of their hard work.
Compared with the thousands of pounds players in the English Premiership players get every week versus the mockery our players get, one may be tempted to say match fixing has merit-plenty of it.
Fraud is bad, period. Have we ever allowed our children to be commercial sex workers because we are poor?
Those who are willing to play with a heavy conscience of match fixing, they must not be anywhere near a football
Proven guilty, it’s time to speedily deal with the matter by giving the perpetrators appropriate punishment.
Economically, the clubs are wobbling but has someone thought about the fans about the fans that pay their hard earned money to go through the turnstiles every match day.
Professionalism must reign in the domestic premiership as well as having the ongoing wrangles over non-payment of appearance and winning bonuses for our national team to be the curse from the past.
For that to happen, the sport doesn’t have to be tainted with these allegations of match fixing that prompt serious sponsors to scurry for cover.
Big Phil, a new broom, must be given a mandate to lead the country into football paradise by supporting his endeavours to clean the sport.
However, sensationalising the match fixing scandals without supporting evidence might make the alleged culprits victims of a smear campaign.
We hear that Henrietta Rushwaya says we she met the match – fixers, it was part of a sting operation reminiscent of FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) operations we watch in movies.
If it is true, then she could be innocent yet our media has gone to town about the whole sordid affair. Thus, investigations require caution and quick exposure of damning evidence so that prosecution quickly commences.
For now, our players are compromised and it may be another decade before we have another ‘’flying elephant’’ has a dance with English football largely because they are viewed with suspicion by scouts and teams in Europe. We hope it will never come to that.
Nevertheless, without making an over-kill, the match-fixers are digging a hole for Zimbabwean football that may be difficult for it to resurrect in our life time.
Appropriate legislation must be crafted by our lawmakers to protect the integrity of our game. Players must always exhibit patriotism in their dealing with agents.
Yes, money is at the core of match-fixing. The Asians believe we are very poor and therefore easy to engage in match fixing just as some countries engage females from Zimbabwe in slavery and hope to get away with it.
It is in this context that the football mother body, ZIFA, has to employ a team of psychologists who would put players in a relaxed frame of mind as they prepare for the back to back encounters with Sihlangu, the Swazi national team in the 2017 AFCON qualifiers.
Edzai Kasinauyo has been hailed as a former footballer whose knowledge of the game would be a catalyst for soccer development in Zimbabwe.
He protests his innocence and it is my hope that there is evidence to back those protestations as the nation battles to return the heady days of Reinhard Fabisch, Sunday Marimo and Charles Mhlauri who made fans go to the National Sports Stadium, Barbourfields and Rufaro Stadiums in droves and sing ‘’yave nyama yekugocha, yowerere …baya wabaya.’’
Match fixing and fair play will never be synonymous; they are just like water and oil; they will never mix. Fellow Zimbabweans, let’s rally behind our Warriors in the forthcoming matches. ZIFA, please engage expert psychologists to prepare our boys.
As for our esteemed players, don’t let anything distract you from going to the AFCON for the third time in the country’s history.
Online Reporter