adminEven against the depressing background of the civil strife that has turned their country into a war zone, Egypt still found time and the wisdom to make full use of Wednesday’s Fifa international friendly date with a tie against Uganda. The Pharaohs have already booked their place into the last phase of the 2014 World Cup African Zone qualifiers, and the difference between them and us in our group is 14 points, but they still found it relevant to play a friendly international on Wednesday.
Even against the depressing background of the turmoil that followed the coup, in which rebels seized power in March this year which has forced them to play their home matches on neutral soil, the Central African Republic still found the wisdom to make full use of Wednesday’s international friendly date.
The CAR are bottom of their 2014 World Cup group, played their last home match against South Africa in Cameroon and will play their final home match against Ethiopia in the DRC, but they still found it relevant to play a friendly international on Wednesday.
To their credit, for all the pounding they have taken in their group, the CAR footballers battled their way to a goalless draw in Libya.
Cote d’Ivoire have also booked a ticket in the final round of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers but the Elephants still found it relevant to travel 8 000kms, flying more than 10 hours across West Africa and the Atlantic, from Abidjan to East Rutherford in New Jersey, United States, to make full use of Wednesday’s international friendly date.
The Ivorians were hammered 1-4 by Mexico, in Didier Drogba’s return to the national team, but the bigger picture is that they made full use of that date and so did Ghana, who drew 2-2 with Turkey, South Africa, who lost 0-2 to Nigeria, Tunisia, who beat Congo 3-0, Morocco, who lost 1-2 to Burkina Faso and Gabon, who drew 1-1 with Cape Verde.
Malawi and Zambia, the two countries we have played in recent matches in the past month at the Cosafa Cup, were also in action on Wednesday in international friendlies with the Flames away in Rwanda and Chipolopolo on neutral soil, for a clash against Senegal, in France.
Our Warriors, the team that Zifa said they are rebuilding and which, using that theory, needs a lot of competitive matches as the new coach tries to find the right combinations taking advantage of this window, which gives him use of his foreign-based players, were inactive on Wednesday.
While other serious nations that know the true value of football were spread around the world battling in friendly internationals, our football family was trapped in the senseless boardroom fight between Zifa and the PSL leadership about whether or not the domestic midweek Premiership matches should go ahead.
The media coverage of that stand-off between Zifa and the PSL was somehow amateurish and there were stories, the following day after league matches had gone ahead, of winners and losers in this battle, of the association being cut down to size, of the league stamping its authority, of sanity finally prevailing and, in some extreme cases, of good prevailing over evil.
The social media sites were buzzing, too, with some bloggers toasting the PSL triumph and how it had all left Zifa with an egg on their face, hailing the referees for choosing not to be abused in this stand-off and celebrating the ray of light, which they said was brought by the league games being played, after a weekend of darkness, when an international match was postponed, for the first time in this country, when referees failed to pitch up.
Somehow, the big picture, the real big story, that we had watched from a distance as another day designated by Fifa for international friendly matches came, and went, without us making full use of the privileges it presents, especially for a team with a new national coach, was lost in the mayhem of an unnecessary domestic crisis.
Where we somehow found the winners on Wednesday, in a scenario where it was crystal clear that our national game had blown a huge opportunity to give Ian Gorowa his first run with Musona, Khama and company, without all the pressure that comes with a Nations Cup or World Cup qualifier, I will surely never know.
Where we found the good boys, in a cocktail of mayhem where together as a nation we needed to take full responsibility of blowing such a golden chance of giving Gorowa his first glimpse of how Musona, Khama and company could perform under his new regime, I certainly will never know.
The mere fact that we blew away this golden opportunity and, instead, limited ourselves to the distractions that came with the small picture of whether or not the league matches should go ahead, whether or not the referees should handle matches, and all that immaterial stuff, showed me that we were all losers in this.
We long to scale the heights that have been scaled by the Zambians, celebrate the success that they have achieved in the past two years, dream of the kind of leadership impact that Kalusha Bwalya has had on the other side of the Zambezi but when our neighbours are in France, playing a friendly against Senegal, we are fighting for domestic league games to be played and no one remembered to organise a game for Musona, Khama and company.
We tell ourselves that we are better than the Malawians and we say look at those Malawians, their teams are allergic to Champions League or Confederations Cup football, their fans don’t get the chance to see Esperance or Al Ahly in their backyard, their decent footballers, like Joseph Kamwendo and John Maduka needed to play here to be seen by South African clubs and the highly-rated Gerald Phiri just made two substitute appearances for CAPS United and was already off to Poland.
But the reality is that the Flames go into their final World Cup group game with a chance to qualify for the final round, if they can beat Nigeria in Abuja or one of those places, and on Wednesday their football leadership had the presence of mind, and the administrative capacity, to send them to Rwanda for a friendly match that they lost 0-1.
While Renard Was In France, Dibango Was Stuck
Nine of the players that Herve Renard brought here last week for that CHAN qualifier that never was – goalkeeper Danny Munyau, defenders Bronson Chama and Christopher Munthali, midfielders Khodwani Mtonga and Kabasi Chongo and forwards Festus Mbewe, Bornwell Mwape, Bruce Musakanya and Evans Kangwa – were in France on Wednesday for that friendly international against Senegal.
Three of these players – Mtonga, Chama and Muthali – started the match against the Lions of Teranga and Musakanya and Kangwa were later introduced for Emmanuel Mayuka, the Southampton striker, and TP Mazembe’s Rainford Kalaba.
For Renard, this game was all about preparations, development of his team, assessment of his players, the whole package of his agenda in Zambia, to try and take Chipolopolo forward, and when the game ended, he spoke like a coach who knew what he wanted in France.
“The final result is not the most important thing in a match of this nature. Senegal provided good opposition for us ahead of the Ghana match (note his focus on their next World Cup tie). They have athletic players,” Renard said.
“This was a good test for our local players (note his focus, too, for their next CHAN tie against us). We will continue working with this crop of players although some of them might not be ready to play at the highest level.”
Five of the players that he brought here played in that match in France against a strong Senegalese team that included Moussa Sow, Mame Biram Diouf, Mbaye Ndiaye, the AC Milan forward, and Henri Saivet, the 23-year-old Bordeaux striker who could be the next big thing out of the French top-flight league.
Four of the other players he brought here were in that squad that drew against Senegal, trained for that match and bonded with their international teammates, picking a trick or two from those who now play a higher level like Mayuka, who is in the English Premiership.
Now, what about our boys whom Dibango had drafted into camp for that CHAN game against the Zambians that never was, what were they up to this week, in general, and on Wednesday, in particular? Of course, they were scattered everywhere in the country, back at their local clubs, unsure whether they will play for their teams in midweek matches, probably relieved that they played to earn something in bonuses or disappointed that they played and lost and got nothing, before trying to switch their minds back to the national team camp and then the CHAN game.
Just check the differences, in the statements released by the FAZ communication manager, Eric Mwanza, this week and the one released by our Zifa communication manager, Xolisani Gwesela, in the same week?
“We continue in our long standing policy of utilising every available Fifa international calendar date to engage some of the best teams in the world and enhance the competitiveness of our national team,” Mwanza told a media briefing in Lusaka.
And here is ours: “Training will start on Friday. The PSL has also agreed to cancel all matches next week to enable the Warriors to prepare adequately for the CHAN return leg set for Ndola in Zambia. There is no bad blood between PSL and Zifa, which some sections of the media want the public to believe,” read a statement released by Gwesela.
While Renard, who has already won so much, including the Nations Cup, was giving an assessment report on Wednesday, after watching five of his CHAN players take on Senegal and four others spend the 90 minutes on the bench, talking about “a good test for our local players”, Dibango, who is just starting his journey with the Warriors, had nothing to assess, nothing to report back on.
For me, that’s where the difference lies between them and us, giving attention to detail, making sure that every opportunity is used to ensure that the development process of the team continues, exposing home-based players to regular competition against Senegalese internationals like Saivet and Sow and always planning, always working, always developing.
Renard in France with Chipolopolo in 2013 provided a stunning playback of Reinhard with the Warriors in France, in 1993, back in the days when, like what the Zambians are doing right now, we were also a very serious football nation.
They Say It’s All About The Money,
Stupid!
Admittedly, it will be grossly unfair to look at our sorry basket case, and perpetual state of paralysis, without taking into account the fundamental fact that, given the bankrupt state of our national association, weighed down by a US$4,5 million debt, there is very little that can move, very little that can be organised, including friendly internationals, and very little that can be achieved.
The Zambians have turned their Chipolopolo brand into something that is marketable and Nike actually pays them a certain fee, for making their kit, while a number of sponsors have come on board and thanks to the contributions of the mines, FAZ can afford to pay Renard and his assistant a combined salary of US$100 000 a month.
In sharp contrast, we have let our Warriors brand suffer the battering from endless scandals, we haven’t let it grow, as much as it could have been, because we have chopped and changed coaches at the drop of a hat, hired a number of funny ones and sacrificed the odd good one who appeared on the scene.
But for all our administrative weaknesses, the brutal reality of our national game is that we can do very little, in terms of taking it a step forward, if we don’t get big sponsors coming on board at national level and, crucially, if the Government doesn’t play a big part in chewing most of the costs that come with running the national teams.
As long as our national game remains in such a sorry state where the Warriors have to be funded by the Zifa president, where Dibango’s salary has to be met by the Zifa boss, where the allowances for the players have to be paid by the Zifa president, where the bonuses for the players have to be paid by the Zifa boss, then you know we are still stuck in the darkness.
Of course, you cannot expect sponsors to come on board and pour their funds into an organisation, like Zifa, that has failed to provide audited statements of its financial transactions since the current leadership took over power in March 2010.
A provision of audited financial reports, on an annual basis, is the hallmark of a public organisation, be it a company on the Stock exchange like Econet, Delta or Zimpapers or a sports body like Zifa or Zimbabwe Cricket, and failure to do so, repeatedly year after year when the funds you are handling are deemed to be public funds, sends the wrong signal.
It weakens the organisation’s ability to woo corporate partners into their corner, and we have been seeing that with Zifa, because there is a marked reluctance by companies to sink their money into a well where there won’t be a public accountability of how much every cent was spent and if their money was used for its intended purpose.
Our thrust as the media should focus on why Zifa have been failing to produce their audited financial statements, investigate the challenges that have resulted in that failure to honour a key corporate responsibility, find the answers and help the fans understand, help the sponsors appreciate and help the organisation move forward.
Sadly, as the media, our focus remains on finding imaginary winners and losers in a senseless battle between Zifa and the PSL over midweek fixtures, we have somehow found heroes where there should be scores of villains, we don’t care anymore that our football is slowly dying and that the only players who had been playing in decent leagues in Europe, Knowledge and Onismor, have retreated into the retirement zone of Super Diski doesn’t appear to concern us anymore.
Come on guys, it’s all about the money.
Why is the Government not playing its big part in helping football, why are the companies not playing their part in helping the national game, why are the Warriors so allergic to sponsorship that they don’t even get a cent for wearing a fifth-rate Puma kit, why should a national game be subsidised, in many of its operations, by just one man, where are the audited financial statements so that we can know where we are and what needs to be done?
We can choose to keep criticising the Warriors’ technical team for their horrible fashion sense, ignoring the brutal reality that our Premiership will never develop as long as we continue to lose our best players to South Africa at a song and hammering Zifa at every turn for their shortcomings in this and that and, 20 years from now, we will still be in this same horrible spot.
Or we can choose to be realistic and devote more acres of our newspaper pages and our sports broadcastson radio and television to tackling the biggest challenge that is threatening the very future of our national game – its perennial lack of funding, asking tough questions about why this is the case and how this could be changed.
Yes, it’s good to beat Zambia in this CHAN qualifier but our focus as a football nation should be bigger than CHAN, should be in having our Under-17s and Under-20s competing well at the African Youth Championships, our clubs writing success stories in the Caf tournaments, the Warriors competing well at the Nations Cup finals and, just as was the case when Reinhard took us to France in 1993, moving within 90 minutes of a place at the World Cup finals.
Mangwiro Weaves His Magic
As CAPS United Rise
When CAPS United made the big decision late last year to pay US$6 000 in appeal fees to help Taurai Mangwiro fight for his right to remain in the game after his Asiagate ban, the then club vice-president, Farai Jere, told me they were investing in quality that needed to be preserved in this game, not only for their club, but for future national teams.
It’s not an easy thing to say, especially for a young coach who has never won a league championship and who is at a club that, when things go quickly wrong, his past romantic flirtation with Dynamos as a player becomes a rallying call, by an extremist group, for him to be doubted as a Messiah who can help the Green Machine.
But 19 games into the season, Mangwiro, one of the finest gentlemen that this game will ever know, is proving worth every penny that CAPS United invested in him to be given a second chance and the Green Machine, for the first time in years, have pushed themselves into a position to compete for the league championship.
They have gone nine league games without a loss, their last defeat coming in that 0-1 loss at the hands of bitter rivals Dynamos on May 19, where they succumbed to a penalty, are unbeaten in 88 days, have won four and drawn five, including picking points at Barbourfields against Bosso, in Hwange and at Mandava, and are just six points off the pace with 33 points still to play for.
Suddenly, you get a feeling this is a team that resembles CAPS United as we have known it before, that fights like the Green Machine we have grown to know, that plays like the Makepekepe we knew, that fights for the league title like the Shaisa Mufaro we used to know when fans fell in love with this football franchise.
I have always argued that the domestic Premiership needs a healthy Makepekepe, just as much as it needs a healthy DeMbare and a healthy Bosso and it’s good to see CAPS United walking with a spring in their step again and such has been their revival that one of their off-shore fans, Godknowns Mudzamba, who is based in New Zealand where it’s all about rugby union, called me yesterday to say he has found his love for football again.
In case you don’t know it guys, our football touches millions of lives not only here in Zimbabwe but right around the world, in more ways than you will ever know, and that is why I’m a big fan and a big advocate that we have to get its funding right.
To God Be The Glory
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Text Feedback – 0772545199
WhatsApp Messenger – 0772545199
Email – [email protected]
Skype – sharuko58
Twitter – @Chakariboy
You can also interact with ROBSON SHARUKO on Facebook and Viber or read his material in The Southern Times.
Online Reporter