Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
THERE is a new sheriff in town at the PSL – banker Isaiah Mupfurutsa.
The man who led the team of administrators who led Simba Bhora to their maiden league championship last season is now the leader of our top-flight league.
It was a remarkable turnaround for a man who was forced out of Dynamos because his vision, anchored on proven methods of doing business, were not compatible with Bernard Marriot’s wild beliefs, which are rooted in the mysterious powers of sangomas.
It felt even sweeter for him that the league championship was won with the help of another man, who was also forced out of DeMbare by Marriot, coach Tonderai Ndiraya.
The man who is in charge of Dynamos today, Moses Maunganidze, somehow, got a seat among the new crop of PSL bosses.
Given what has been happening at DeMbare, with the club reduced to a punching bag and sucked into a relegation dogfight, there will be some people who will question how Maunganidze has been rewarded with a post on the PSL leadership.
But, this is also the same PSL assembly which almost gave the chairmanship to Masimba Chihowa, the chairman of a Manica Diamonds side which has also been sucked into relegation trouble.
He picked five votes in the first round and forced a second round of votes where he increased his votes tally to eight but lost to Mupfurutsa who picked 10 votes in the final poll.
Kenneth Mhlope, the Highlanders boss, is the vice-chairman and I understand the need to balance the regional interests.
But I believe that by now we should have evolved to a point where the guys from the Southern Region can also be the bosses of the PSL.
Mupfurutsa has taken over a baton which, in the past three decades, has been held by the likes of Morrison Sifelani, Wellington Nyatanga, Rafik Khan, Twine Phiri and Farai Jere.
I don’t get excited by the PSL elections and, by extension, the men who are elected to lead the league because I don’t believe there is any value which is added to our football by these polls and this league.
I am one of those people who believe that the PSL has done absolutely nothing in terms of value addition to our football and, in fact, the reality is that its arrival has been a curse to our top-flight clubs.
Yes, many people will spend the weekend celebrating Mupfurutsa’s rise to become the latest man to lead the PSL but what is he really going to change in this league?
To try and look into the future we have to be guided by the past.
It’s now 32 years since Morrison Sifelani became the first PSL chairman and in those three decades the top-flight league has not changed at all except just adding more numbers to its family.
The clubs were promised that they would be given regular grants by the PSL to help them run their operations but we all know that it was a fake promise and not even a cent has been given to them since the league’s formation.
Instead, it is the clubs who have been pumping money into the PSL through remittances from gate-takings and outrageous fines which make a mockery of the value of the league.
It is the clubs which have been bled to their death by a league whose role, outside coming up with fixtures every week, and behaving like a class monitor, appears to be very confusing.
It’s a difficult question that the PSL clubs must confront now – where does all the money which they contribute to the league, on a weekly basis, go?
Are they just contributing all this money to make the PSL rich while they all swim in poverty and isn’t it ironic that even a Kwekwe United, who have contributed something into the PSL coffers, don’t even get a cent to help them on the occasions they run into financial challenges?
THE PSL IS JUST A GIANT GRAVEYARD
Shouldn’t the PSL declare a profit or loss, at the end of every season, and on the occasions that they declare a profit, shouldn’t all this money be shared among the clubs themselves?
Isn’t this the clubs’ money, instead of being the PSL money, and shouldn’t it be shared equally among the clubs themselves at the end of every year?
What is really the value for a club to play in the PSL?
What does a club really gain from playing from our Premiership, except for more media coverage online and on the mainstream spaces, which is not in Division One?
Back in the days when Dynamos was DeMbare, before they transformed into what is now called DeMarriot, clubs could come from Division One and hope for one big cash day when they play the Glamour Boys.
But now, with an average 2,000 fans coming to the Dynamos matches, that benefit has gone.
I’m a Chegutu Pirates fan, by proximity, and the truth is that we never benefitted in any way when we played in the domestic Premiership and we actually became very poor.
We were robbed of home advantage, which meant that overnight, we couldn’t raise the match day revenue which we regularly reaped from our passionate home crowd.
Our fans, too, were given a raw deal as they were barred from watching their favourite club from their spiritual home at Pfupajena.
Now, where they used to walk just to cheer us when we were playing at home, they were now being forced to spend money travelling to Ngezi where we hosted our games at Baobab.
The PSL is a FAILED project and it has failed its members, failed its fans and failed its partners for the 32 years that it has been in existence.
The founding fathers of the PSL sold their members a dummy claiming that independence from the direct control of ZIFA would bring prosperity to the clubs.
Our PSL is like a hospital, when more than half of the patients who are referred there end up in the mortuary, and that alone means there is a need for a review of that health facility.
I reminded the PSL family that there were 16 founding members in 1993 and Nine of those members – Eiffel Flats, Zimbabwe Saints, Darryn T, Fire Batteries, Black Aces, Tanganda, ShuShine and Ziscosteel – are now found at the football graveyard.
Amazingly, exactly ten years before their appearance in the maiden PSL season, Eiffel Flats, then known as Rio Tinto, ended with the same number of points as Dynamos in the championship race but lost because of an inferior goal difference.
The first two newboys to play in the PSL in 1994 – Blackpool and Rufaro Rovers – also collapsed.
The next two clubs to play in the PSL in ’95 – Grain Tigers and Lancashire – just like Blackpool and Grain Tigers before them, also collapsed.
And, we have a whole lot of others – Arcadia United, Mutare United, Gweru United, Air Zim Jets, which once featured Benjani, Amazulu, Motor Action, Hackney, Chrome Stars, Kambuzuma United, Njube Sundowns, Shooting Stars, Buymore, Mwana Africa, Monomotapa United, Kwekwe Cables, Gunners, CAPS FC, Easter Lions, Underhill, Lengthens, Bantu Rovers, Highway, Eagles, Douglas Warriors, FC Victoria, Quelaton, How Mine, Chiredzi FC, Tsholotsho Pirates, Flame Lily, Dongo Sawmills, Border Strikes, Kiglon and Mushowani Stars who are in that graveyard.
Last week, I talked about the 2008 season.
At the end of that season, of the clubs who finished in the top eight, only Dynamos and Highlanders have not collapsed.
Every other club in that top eight, including champions Monomotapa, collapsed – Njube Sundowns (3rd), Shooting Stars (fourth), Lengthens (fifth), Motor Action (sixth) and Gunners (seventh).
Of the 12 clubs that survived relegation that year only DeMbare, Bosso and CAPS United are still standing today.
Kiglon (ninth), Underhill (tenth) and Eastern Lions (eleventh) all collapsed while CAPS United, who finished twelfth, are still standing.
Amazulu were champions in 2003, Masvingo United should have been champions in 2005, Monomotapa were champions in 2008, Gunners were champions in 2009, Motor Action were champions in 2010 but they have all collapsed.
I had forgotten Blue Ribbon.
This is the club which was led by Maunganidze who was yesterday given a role in the new PSL leadership.
Maybe, the message from the clubs in the PSL is that they are comfortable with many of their members getting nothing, in terms of benefits, and collapsing at regular intervals.
Maybe, the message from them is that this is what they like to see and this is what the PSL should always represent.
Maybe, they are very comfortable to be part of this giant graveyard.
It took 31 years for the PSL to finally find a piece of land where they want to build their offices.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Sables!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hiltonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
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