Return of the giants

Petros Kausiyo
Sports Editor

AFTER years of being pushed into the shade by their rivals, giants Dynamos and Highlanders are on a re-birth that has left them believing that they can once again become the dominant forces in the domestic football jungle.

A re-energising week away from their bases in Harare and Bulawayo, fuelled by the resources provided by energy giants Sakunda Holdings, virtually galvanised the two clubs if indications from their respective camps at the end of their strategic retreat in the resort town of Victoria Falls are anything to go by.

It probably needed a close encounter with nature in an environment that also houses some of the big five animals such as lions and elephants, famed for their dominance of the jungle, for DeMbare and Bosso to retrace their culture and identities.

After an absorbing week of business that was laced with some moments of leisure and an opportunity for sport tourism, the country’s most successful and supported clubs are convinced they might have just turned the corner in Victoria Falls.

It was also the same assertion that came from their expert crew of facilitators — Russell Mhiribidi of the Sports Leaders Institute of Zimbabwe that has close links with the West Virginia University in the United States, respected corporate transformation strategist Zwelibanzi Ndlovu and Global Esports commissioner Tyrone Seward.

DeMbare chairman Isiah Mupfurutsa was left purring following the potentially game changing retreat that is also set to strengthen his club’s relations with their principal sponsors.

“We are really excited and personally as the chairman, I am really excited with this event. It has presented us with an opportunity to be united as Dynamos because we have brought in all the stakeholders who are important in the functionality of the club, our legends were here, representatives of the players, administration, technical, our supporters were represented and even the media they were represented here.

“I think everyone who has an opinion on the club, everyone who has a chance to give an input in the club was here and that has given us an opportunity to have a buy-in on the vision we have for the club.

“Even if one of us had a vision or those kind of plans, it was not going to be easy to try and influence others if they don’t have a buy-in but this exercise that we went through in Victoria Falls, we have people who now appreciate where we are and where we want to go and what is happening elsewhere.

“The facilitators provided an insight on what is happening elsewhere, on what we need to do to match what is happening in the modern day standards and we are grateful to our sponsors for providing the resources to do this.

“It is something that we have always wanted to but we didn’t have the resources and we even approached our previous sponsors, and as can be seen with the setting of the event, putting together people in such a set up does not come cheap’’.

Mupfurutsa was also happy to note that participants were actively involved in crafting the strategic plan with the DeMbare boss confident that the objectives can be achieved.

“We are not going to dismantle the group that came here, we are going to continuously engage with the various stakeholders and we will disseminate the information and together we are going to implement the Dynamos strategy. It’s a journey that we have embarked on and no-one is going to alight from the bus until we reach the destination. The document that is going to come, the strategy we will come up with is going to be implemented together,’’ Mupfurutsa said.

The Harare banker reckons that Sakunda’s intervention into Dynamos and Highlanders “was timely and God-given’’ in view of the fact that the two sides had been hamstrung by a severe loss of revenue owing to the Covid-19-induced ban of spectators at matches.

Dynamos and Highlanders had until Sakunda’s arrival on the scene, relied heavily on gate revenue to fund their operations.

“All I can say is that God is wonderful, he knows the right time, he knows the appropriate time. The coming in of Sakunda was timely for both clubs, it was God-given and we can’t say it was too late but it came at the right time because the stage we had reached was frightening for both clubs and at times as leaders of clubs we were having sleepless nights,’’ he said.

Both Bosso acting chief executive Ronald Moyo and his vice-chairman Modern Ngwenya acknowledged that the Bulawayo giants, who last won the championship under Methembe Ndlovu in 2006, had a lot of ground to cover to reclaim their status.

Ngwenya, who also has one eye set on a post on the ZIFA board in the association’s elections next year, is adamant that Bosso will now chart a new trajectory that will re-ignite interest among their multitude of fans across the country and beyond.

“Sakunda is the best thing ever to happen to Dynamos and Highlanders.

“We are giants in the country, unfortunately we were the fading giants, not because of our own making but because we didn’t have resources. “Even in the bible Solomon says money is an answer to everything and we didn’t have that answer. Other clubs were doing better than us not because of structures but better in terms of resources, better because they had the money,’’ Ngwenya said.

He said what had left the two giants even more delighted was the commitment by Sakunda to ensure they would only wean them off when they had been capacitated enough to be able to walk on their own.

“If we fail to win games it will be more of our own making than the sponsors because the sponsor has made sure we have the props and the stage effects to win games.

“They have done this by making sure that we have a Strat plan workshop, not at a poor place but at one of the seven wonders of the world, Victoria Falls.

“You talk of the facilitators, they are top notch coaches who have the expertise and they have taught us a good menu, it is yummy and we have learnt a lot as administrators.

“This is the right opportunity for us to learn and then implement and I hope and pray that there won’t be any implementation paralysis because the problem with clubs, corporates is that we learn and we have got the theory but implementation, doing practically then becomes a problem and I hope there won’t be some fatigue when it comes to implementing.

“The good thing is that our facilitators are with us in the planning and they will be with us in the implementation,’’ Ngwenya said.

The Bosso second in command also revealed that his club would in the next transfer window raid the market for quality players after Sakunda availed the resources.

For Moyo, a refreshing face of youthful administrators that have worked their way in the country’s top clubs, it was imperative that after the retreat, both clubs came out with business strategies on how to conduct themselves.

“We have been given very good and sharp facilitators who are experienced and well-travelled and we are saying as Highlanders, we must go implement and execute whatever we have learnt to ensure that brand Highlanders is where it should be.

“We don’t need to be in denial… as a club we have not been where we are supposed to be especially, there are a lot of things that we have not been doing correctly in terms of the business side of football.

“We have been reduced to what some would say we are not the biggest club in the country but the oldest club,’’ Moyo said.

As they resume their respective Premiership campaigns under the shadows of the platinum sides – champions FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum Stars – Bosso and DeMbare will be aware they have been thrust back into the spotlight going into the new year.