adminThe Zifa board member flew over about 11 African countries – a bit of Zambia, a tip of Malawi, Tanzania, DRC, Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali – last Saturday but, still, could not reach his destination in Conakry.
From Dakar to Conakry, Benedict had only an hour’s flight, of his transcontinental trip, remaining in his journey but, after having been in the air for about 11 hours, somehow he couldn’t complete the remaining 60 minutes of the final leg.
From Dakar to Conakry, Benedict had only just 708km left to cover, having travelled more than 8 000km, but that final leg of the journey, somehow, still couldn’t be covered.
There were three legs of this flight, the first one from Harare to Nairobi for about three hours, the second one from Nairobi to Dakar for approximately eight hours of flight on that Kenyan Airways passenger jet.
The third one, which was the shortest, from Dakar to Conakry, ironically proved the longest for Benedict Moyo.
By the time Benedict Moyo touched down at Harare International Airport on Tuesday, he had covered a distance of 16 258km, in a chaotic tour of duty that lasted some four days, but had still failed to reach his intended destination.
To put the entire distance that Benedict covered, in his vain attempts to get to Conakry, into context, you have to consider that this was as good as flying from Harare to Los Angeles, on the Pacific tip of the United States, for a date with the Hollywood stars and, after that, a dash to Las Vegas for a round of Blackjack at the Mandalay Bay Resort And Casino.
The tragedy about all this is that Benedict didn’t get to his intended destination, ended up being marooned in Dakar, with a smaller group of the delegation he had led from Harare, while the bigger chunk was in Conakry, fulfilling a World Cup qualifier made in hell.
By the time Klaus Dieter Pagels and the remnants of his Warriors touched down in Conakry on Saturday night, they were leaderless, with their delegation chief stranded in Dakar, they were hopeless, with their World Cup dreams already in tatters, and they were restless, having completed the first part of a trip made in hell.
The nightmare of last weekend’s events, as horrible as things can get for a national team, was put into context by the fact that this was the first time, in Peter Ndlovu’s decorated 23-year journey with the Warriors, both as a player and a coach, that he had left home, for an international assignment, and ended up stranded, in a foreign country, without getting to his intended destination.
Lloyd Mutasa, the other Warriors’ assistant coach, told us that he had never been to Guinea before embarking on his maiden flight to Conakry, but by the time he returned home on Tuesday, he still had not yet been to Guinea, despite spending four days on the road, covering 16 258km and spending 22 hours in the air.
Poor Hardlife Zvirekwi never made it beyond Nairobi, after losing his passport on the flight from Harare, and why he still had his passport, in a delegation that travelled with a team manager who should be in possession of such important documents, highlights the paralysed structures that we still hope, against all odds, to deliver for our national team.
By the time he returned home on Sunday, Hardlife had become a subject of some sickening jokes, his dignity had been stripped, his passport was gone and he was now travelling, like a refugee, on an emergency travel document, all because of a flawed and chaotic system that had left him vulnerable.
Benedict Moyo, the delegation leader, was at pains on Tuesday to cast some light on the cloud of darkness that followed every step they took, every kilometre they covered and every country they passed, during their ill-fated trip that will now be used as a template for how not to plan a tour of duty for a national football team.
Moyo spoke like a Grade Zero kid, with an open mouth and a shut mind, as he tried to put some reason to their shameless decision to get onto the plane in Harare when they knew, very well, that their tickets from Dakar to Conakry hadn’t been confirmed.
You don’t need a travel agent to tell you that your ticket is confirmed or not, that information is provided on the ticket itself, it tells you everything, and where you are confirmed it tells you so and, where you are not confirmed, it also tells you so.
The status of your flight is all pronounced on your itinerary and tells you what time is the flight, are you confirmed or you are on standby, and for Moyo to tell us that he had been given assurance by the travel agent that there was a possibility seats could be secured, for the flight from Dakar to Conakry, was a heap of absolute rubbish.
Admittedly, space can be found on a full flight, if someone with a confirmed seat doesn’t show up, but for one to travel from Harare to Dakar, basing his luck on gambling that someone would not show up for the flight from the Senegalese capital to Conakry, is chancing fate too much.
And, in our sorry case, for five people to travel from Harare to Dakar and gamble on five other passengers, whose identity they don’t know and will probably never know, not to show up for the flight from Dakar to Conakry, was an act, so primitive, it defies any sense of logic in this technically developed world, which we live in, where you can print your boarding card or change your seat on the plane on your iPad or smart phone at home.
Our football has had its flirtations with journeys back to the Dark Ages but nothing really can beat this and the worst part of it all is that you still have a head of delegation trying to justify why he was carrying a cook, whose final leg of the trip was not confirmed, all the way to Dakar.
Maybe, he wanted him to cook for the Warriors some sadza on that Kenya Airways plane, or at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport during the stop-over in Kenya, or again on the plane from Nairobi to Senegal or during the stop-over in Dakar because these were the only places were his ticket guaranteed him space.
Why didn’t Benedict Moyo just do one simple test at Harare International Airport, that Saturday morning, which would have given him the biggest indication, if not confirmation, that to believe that something would suddenly happen, and they would end up flying into Conakry, was as foolish as donating a blue-and-white kit to CAPS United?
Benedict should just have tried to check in the luggage for the five, including himself, to Conakry and, there and then, he would have been advised that it wasn’t possible because the tickets that they were holding didn’t allow for such a service to be provided.
That simple test would have made a huge difference and Peter Ndlovu wouldn’t have ended up suffering this humiliation, after 23 years of decorated service to his motherland in which he has become domestic football’s biggest brand, of finding himself being stranded, for the first time, in a foreign country, on national duty, without getting to his scheduled destination.
All That Can Be Seen Is Just Darkness
The message from the fans has been the same story – what have we really done to deserve all this emotional battering from a game that we love, from a team that we support with all our hearts, from leaders who came in saying all they could do was to serve our interests and take our game a notch higher?
To try and pretend that the fans are not crying out, loud and clear, that they have been let down by a leadership of inherent incompetence, which promised them heaven but delivered hell, would be a great betrayal of the trust that such people have invested, in some of us, to give their words a public platform to be heard, to give their tears a public picture to be seen and to give their broken hearts a public forum to be felt.
To try and pretend that everything is well, our football ship is sailing in smooth clear waters, instead of rough seas tossing giant waves that could break it all apart, flooding the poor boat and taking it and its baggage down into the ocean’s belly, never to be seen again, would be an insult to all the fans who have a right to feel very afraid right now.
To try and pretend that all is well, our football plane is flying in smooth climatic conditions, instead of rough and stormy clouds that are producing so much turbulence those who have begun to believe the jet could break apart and plunge on its downward journey to destruction, would be an insult to all the players who are doing so much, with very little support, for the cause of their nation.
If ever we wanted confirmation that we have really reached rock bottom, in terms of our spectacular free-fall into the world of Mickey Mouse football teams where Tahiti will appear so special, so powerful, they will win all their games by huge margins, then the horror events of last week provided that.
For me, the reality that it had all gone horribly wrong, came on Tuesday when our boys touched down at Harare International Airport, dressed casually, something you would associate with members of Orchestra Ndozvese rather than touring sporting ambassadors representing the number one sporting discipline in this country.
Those pictures at the airport told a thousand powerful words, of a game crying out for salvation, a game crying out for leadership, no one was singing but this was our song crying out for help and those Warriors, in those casual outfits on Tuesday, said it best when they said nothing at all.
A Zifa board, which becomes paralysed once Cuthbert Dube boards a plane, was nowhere to be seen when this nation needed answers and an explanation, to what was really happening last week, and in their dark shells, behind dark shades where they find imaginary comfort trying to live in denial, they saw shadows of a third force working to frustrate them.
A Zifa board, which becomes so dysfunctional once Cuthbert Dube flies out of the country, was predictably powerless to act, to try and make a difference, as the fatal weaknesses that combine to make them such a hopeless, and helpless shell in the absence of their leader, emerged and trapped them in their world of fantasy.
Dube, for all the criticism he is getting, can say that I have tried my best, in a difficult working environment and my commitment or contribution, just to try and make things tick, can be underlined by the massive financial injection I have done, with no collateral to provide the guarantee that the money will be repaid, just to keep this organisation ticking.
Mavis Gumbo, may God bless this woman of incredible organisational skills whose visionary leadership has turned the Mighty Warriors from a dormant franchise, closer to extinction than the 3 200 tigers left in the entire world, into an energetic and competitive team good enough to be classified among the eight best teams on the continent, has run her marathon and done brilliantly.
Twine Phiri will say that I have turned my Premiership into a brand that has corporate sponsors once again, can now be seen in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa on SuperSport 9, and from taking over in the year that Motor Action received nothing for being champions, a team can today get US$120 000, for playing just three games and winning the BancABC Sup8r Cup.
What will the others on that Zifa board say they have done in the past three-and-half years, as a direct and positive contribution to the game, save for investigating this and that chap, suspending this and that guy?
Or simply drawing allowances from an organisation that is certainly bankrupt, failing to do simple things like producing audited statements of accounts and flying around the continent, including to destinations where their tickets won’t take them?
Charles Charamba asked it in song, “Muchatiiko kana Mwari Baba Vachikubvunzai vana vangu komakitei, makaiteiko, nenguva yenyu pamaive panyika?”
You could say that for this Zifa board.
When you have a huge crisis, like the one the Warriors faced last week, it’s time for every Zifa board member to take stock and try and see what he has done, to add a certain value to the national game, and if a lot of them did that, they will be lying to their soul if they found out that they have done absolutely nothing and have just been hanging onto Cuthbert Dube’s coattail.
By withdrawing into their shell, divorcing themselves from reality when the nation was crying out for answers, finding cold comfort in the world of denial when a huge crisis was unfolding and hoping that Dube would wave some form of magic, from Brazil and rescue the situation, those board members gave up their right to be considered as football leaders.
For them to expect that Jonathan Mashingaidze, the chief executive, would suddenly find the money to fund this trip, when he is just a mere employee who expects them to generate even the money that he takes home as his salary, was not only reckless but certainly scandalous and underlines their fatal administrative shortcomings.
Their best way out right now would have been to resign, throw in the towel and let others who can add value to the game, who can tell this nation that we can help run this organisation even when the organisation’s president is in Brazil, but we know that it won’t happen, they will ride this storm and cling on to their positions even when it’s now clear their irrelevancy is there for everyone to see.
Oh Yessss, The Premiership Is Back
Champions Dynamos lost for the first time this season, in a surprise 2-3 defeat at Buffaloes, to hand Callisto Pasuwa his first loss, in league action, in nine months with the last one coming in a 0-1 defeat at Chicken Inn in September last year.
That DeMbare would probably feel the hangover effect of the Warriors’ disastrous two-week World Cup show, with so many of their players in that squad that was hammered at home and suffered emotional scars in that bungled trip to Guinea, was certainly expected.
So, they lost their main defender, Partson Jaure, to a national cause, lost their main midfielder, Devon Chafa, to the same cause, and a tired Ocean Mushure was fast-tracked into action, just 24 hours after touching down from Guinea.
Why a team should pay the price for serving its nation defies logic and there was no need for DeMbare to be forced to play on Wednesday, with their main players having come a day earlier, and having this game either on Thursday or Friday would have made sense.
That the Glamour Boys were also on the road, for this assignment, and not at home, added weight to the cocktail of reasons that should have supported the rescheduling of this game a day or two days later.
Bosso were also beaten on Wednesday but they, too, should not suffer for sending their best player, Masimba Mambare, for national duty and there was no reason why that game should not have been played on Thursday or Friday.
Today, Highlanders are in town for the Battle of the Cities showdown against a CAPS United side that emerged from the midweek assignments as the only member of the Big Three standing and there is a feeling within their camp that everything is slowly beginning to fall into place.
Taurai Mangwiro impresses me a lot, as a tactician, and it’s not every day that you find an honest coach, like this man, who will tell his bosses to recruit another coach to come and help him because he knows where he comes short and what the other fellow can bring to the table.
A lot of our coaches feel threatened, to ask another coach to come and help them, but Mangwiro has now hired two head coaches – Mkhuphali Masuku and Saul Chaminuka – in a space of one year, to come and help him in his Green Machine project.
If CAPS United win today, they have every reason to believe they can battle for this championship and make a success story of their challenge, but if they lose, their character against the big boys would be exposed once again and the doubts will creep into their players and fans.
But, whatever the result, you can be assured we are guaranteed a good afternoon at the giant stadium and, after the turmoil of the last two weeks when the Warriors conspired to inflict serious damage on our emotions, it just feels good to know that football will make some people smile today.
At least Highlanders will arrive, with a full complement of players and coaching staff and the head of their delegation, and we won’t see a situation where team manager Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo will be marooned in Kadoma, together with assistant coach Bekhi Ndlovu and the cook, if they have any.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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