Robson Sharuko: Tales From Bamako

the world, in the shadow of his death, than he ever made in his seventeen years on this planet, some of which were spent supporting his beloved club Cucuta Deportivo. Jacome was shot dead while playing football in a park in his hometown and his friends decided to take his body, and the coffin, to a Primera Division clash between Cucuta Deportivo and Envigado last Saturday.
Reports indicate that members of the ultra Cucuta Barra del Indio Supporters Group arrived on the day of the match, to pay their respects at the funeral service, and decided their slain friend deserved the ultimate send-off – a dance with his heroes one last time.
How the fans managed to smuggle the coffin into the stadium, no one knows. But what is known is that they arrived at the stadium with just 30 minutes remaining in the game, and their team losing 0-1, and news agencies have captured the images of the coffin being passed around in the stand housing the ultras among the home team.
Strangely, shortly after the coffin started to be passed around, Cucuta found the energy to push forward and they equalised in a match that eventually finished 1-1.
Cucuta’s medic, Julio Rivera, told Colombia Reports: “They don’t let in the “barras” (fanatics) but yes, a cadaver.
This is the only part of the world where this has happened.”
Police have launched investigations trying to establish how the coffin passed through security at the ground and was allowed to be held aloft in the stands with police spokesman Colonel Alvaro Pico describing the incident as ‘unfortunate’.
Colombia has had its fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with its football – from goalkeeper Rene Higuita’s antics to its endless links with the underworld that controls the big money that comes from the booming drug trade in that South American nation.
But the spectacular stunt pulled by the ultras in bringing the body of Jacome to a stadium last Saturday was out of this world.
Ironically, Jacome – whose death will forever be linked to football (the game he was playing when he was shot dead and the game where his coffin made headlines) – was born in the year that Andreas Escobar was gunned down in the parking lot of a Medellin night club.
Escobar, the gentle defender known as “El Caballero del Futbol” or “The Gentleman of Football,” played for the Colombian national team and scored a goal in a 1-1 draw against Englandin a friendly international at Wembley in 1988.
On June 22, in a 1994 World Cup finals group match against the United States, Escobar stretched to try and cut a cross from John Harkes but turned the ball into his own net and Colombia, heavily favoured to win the tournament after a five-goal destruction of Argentina in Bounes Aires during the qualifiers, lost 1-2 and crashed out in the first round.
Two weeks later, on July 2, Escobar was alone, in the parking lot of a Medellin night club, when three men and a woman approached him, an argument ensured and one of them produced a handgun and shot him 12 times, reportedly shouting Goal, after every shot. Many believe he was killed by the Mafia because of the losses that it might have suffered in gambling stakes for Colombia to win the match against the United States and, the fact that the man who was later convicted of the murder worked for the underworld, put that into perspective.
Escobar died 45 minutes later, after having been rushed to hospital, just a month before he was due to wed dentist Pamela Cascardo, the girlfriend he had dated for five years, and the following year Humerto Castro Munoz confessed to killing Escobar and was jailed for 43 years, later reduced to 26 years, before being released from prison on good behaviour in 2005. Today the Andreas Escobar Project, unveiled by his family following his death, is meant to assist underprivileged children in Colombia by taking them away from the streets and giving them a chance to find a way to live through playing football.
Andreas Escobar’s death touched Colombia and 120 000 people attended his funeral and, even up to this day, many fans of his old Medellin club come to watch home matches carrying photographs of the slain football star whose death touched them all.
The Shadow Of Death
Three weeks ago, on March 13, Dynamos lifted the NetOne Charity Shield at Rufaro as the domestic season embraced a new campaign and a new sponsor on the rapidly changing football landscape.
On that Sunday, very few people chose to remember that it marked the seventh anniversary of the tragic death of CAPS United players Blessing Makunike, Shingi Arlon and Gary Mashoko in a horrific car accident as they returned home from a league match.
As time passes by, the painful memories of that tragic day begin to fade from the memory of the domestic football family and interestingly CAPS United, who played a pre-season friendly against FC Platinum on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the death of their stars, didn’t even care to wear black armbands.
Today the fans of the Medellin club that Pablo Escobar used to play for still carry his pictures into their home games and the mayor of the city unveiled a statute in honour of the slain star, who died 17 years ago, while we appear to be quickly forgetting the memory of our stars who perished just seven years ago.
The fans of Manchester United still mark the day the plane carrying the Busby Babes crashed in Munich and wiped out a generation of the team’s finest players on that fateful day in 1958, even though the event happened 53 years ago now, but we seem to be in a hurry to forget our stars who met their cruel fate just seven years ago.
But then this is the same game that forgot those who died when they went to the National Sports Stadium to support their beloved Warriors in that World Cup qualifier against Bafana Bafana at the turn of the millennium.
The same game that forgot Steve “The Dude” Kwashi, injured in a road crash in the line of duty as he returned home from his team’s away match, the game that forgot Francis Madziva, the super leftback that was robbed away from us by cruel fate when he was injured in another accident.
Maybe it’s asking for too much from a game that has always turned its back on its stars, the moment their playing days are over, and we have all probably seen the sad treatment former players receive at the hands of either their former clubs or their former opponents.
Maybe that explains why domestic football, unlike its cousins across the Zambezi, has never valued the importance of former players in its administrative structures.
Thompson Dondo, the chief executive of Kiglon Football Club, believes our national game has been dying a slow and painful death for a long time now and, while things might look normal on the outside, he feels Zimbabwean football is a sporting discipline slowly sinking into its grave.
Dondo, who spent years working in England before deciding to come and play a part in the destiny of his motherland, argued this week that virtually all the Premiership clubs were living in the shadow of death, threatened by rising operational costs, suffocated by poor funding and ignored by sponsors.
Little Kiglon brewed a shocker on Sunday when they beat Dynamos 1-0 at Rufaro but rather than the occasion turning into a triumphant moment for the minnows, Dondo said it was a day of reflection of the massive challenges they face and, rather than enjoy the victory, they were burdened by the grim picture confronting the team.
Yes, they had beaten Dynamos, he told me, but where were they going to get money to pay the players and coaches, with the big chunk of their earnings from gate receipts that day having gone into the coffers of the Harare City Council and other service providers?
Where were they going to get the money to foot the costs of preparing and travelling to Bulawayo this weekend for a tie against Zimbabwe Saints?
To Dondo these questions were more important that celebrating the three points that were on the board and, after a year in which they had tried to sell the team’s franchise, the sad reality was that Kiglon was still their baby and they had to find the debt to foot the costs.
Dondo questioned whether there was any reason, in small clubs like Kiglon who are unlikely to get any return from gate receipts except when they play Dynamos and CAPS United at home, to celebrate the coming in of Delta Beverages as the flagship sponsor of the Premiership.
He wondered whether there was any wisdom in celebrating a sponsorship, which would probably give them around US$20 000, should they finish in their regular mid-table position, when they would have spent the year investing more than US$300 000 in running Kiglon alone this year.
He said the cancer, which was destroying the clubs and keeping them living in a shadow of death, was not only found among the small clubs like Kiglon, even though they were the group mostly at risk, but even in giants like CAPS United, Dynamos and Highlanders.
We all saw the challenges that Dynamos faced, just to try and fulfil a Champions League game in Algeria this week, and – as we look back – we might find that Dondo’s story probably made sense.
It’s All Gloomy Right Now
I met Cuthbert Chitima, the Gunners’ owner, this week and he told me a sad story of the big challenges that he is facing just trying to keep the team afloat. Chitima said Gunners will require about US$300 000 just to complete the season this year and, without partners and sponsors to help him in his project, he was frank that he was battling against time just to keep his team intact and fulfilling their league commitments.
He told me that he has paid a huge price so far, in terms of his financial commitment to the team, and this has wiped away a good chunk of what he has worked for so far in his life and he believes that he just can’t keep making the sacrifices any more.
Chitima had a dream when he formed his Gunners project with his friend Sweeney Mushonga and they did not only win the Division One league but they also became the champions of Zimbabwe and played in the Champions League where they were unlucky to lose to Al-Ahly.
Along the way they gave a platform to players who took their game to a new level and they include Ramson Zhuwawo who, after being rejected by Dynamos for being not good enough to make the grade at the Glamour Boys, he found the right conditions at Gunners to thrive and become the best player in the domestic Premiership two years ago. Now Ramson is in South Africa, having inked a deal with Super Diski side Amazulu, and his life has changed so much he doesn’t need to worry about where his rent will come from.
Ovidy Karuru was making waves at Masvingo United as a promising midfielder when Chitima injected a substantial fortune to bring him to Harare and, in the Gunners’ colours, he found a way to raise his game and was bought by a French side.
Norman Maroto was rejected by his boyhood team Dynamos, who felt he wasn’t good enough anymore, but he went to Gunners and found the right environment to play the game and soon re-discovered the attacking instincts that had promised so much during his days at Kidznet and became the deadliest forward in the local league last season. Soon he was on his way to Premiership money bags FC Platinum because, as much as Chitima wanted to keep his leading goal-scorer, the reality was that he needed to balance the books and selling his main striker was one of the tough options on the table. From a layman’s view, it would be easy to believe that Chitima got a substantive dividend from the sale of his players and, if that is the case, why then should he be having problems with funding his club?
The reality is that the returns from the player sales pale into insignificance when compared to the magnitude of the costs involved in running the club and, without sponsors to bank Gunners and fans to give the club regular gate receipts for cash flow, it’s a massive battle to keep the team afloat. Chitima was brutally honest with me that the future doesn’t look good for Gunners, who have a very competitive team, but do not have the finances to keep the project afloat. He said he needed a sponsor, who can come and support the team, or investors who might be willing to get a stake in the project. He appealed for the people of Mabvuku and Tafara to come and rally behind Gunners, who have moved to the old Circle Cement as their home ground, to boost the club’s gate receipts and ensure that his project could retain something to oil their operating costs the following week.
The tragedy is that Gunners are not alone in that battle. Shooting Stars are facing a crisis, Kiglon can collapse any moment, Eric Rosen is already feeling the costs of playing on the continent and Motor Action are on shaky ground, Masvingo United players rebelled the other week, Monomotapa are on sale, Zimbabwe Saints is in a tricky situation and Shabanie doesn’t look secure. It’s a crisis that faces more than half the Premiership clubs.
It’s against that background where you understand Dondo when he says what the clubs wanted was not prize money but sponsorship to help them offset the costs that come with playing in the Premiership and, as long as they all managed to finish the season, even getting a dollar as a token of appreciation for that honour would not be a bad idea.
After all Motor Action got nothing last year but they are still recognised as champions. The danger we have today is that we can have prize money, guaranteed by Delta Beverages, but what will happen to the league when more than half of its membership fails to complete the programme because they have run out of funds to finance the costs of their projects?
Delta have been very clear that they will not tolerate any negative things coming out of the Premiership and their name being dragged into the mud.
The challenge will come when Shooting Stars fail to travel to Hwange and all the negativity that will come with that possibility. At the rate of the way things are going, the Wild Boys will not be the only ones to do so because it will take a miracle for half the teams in the Premiership to complete their programmes without a helping hand from sponsors and other investors.
The Fall In Bamako
The Warriors slumped to their first defeat in the 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers when they went down 0-1 to Mali in Bamako last Saturday in a game, given the way we had dropped two points at home against Cape Verde, we badly needed to win.
A draw wouldn’t have been a bad result either but a defeat ensured that we drifted further from the leading duo with Cape Verde in control on seven points and Mali in second place on six points while we have just two points, having dropped seven points, in just three games.
It’s fair to suggest that, when the draw was made, not many Zimbabweans believed that we could pull out a win in Bamako although a draw was possible.
But we also believed we had a good chance of winning in Liberia, which we should have done after taking the lead and controlling the game for long periods, and we should have won the home game against Cape Verde if we had not let boardroom politics take precedence.
Refreshingly Ben Moyo admitted in his policy paper presented to the Zifa board that we shot ourselves in the foot when we conspired to lose those two points against Cape Verde and he said everyone, including the Zifa board, should take responsibility for that.
I have had my own differences with Ben Moyo but what I can’t fault in him, especially the more that I interact with him, is his refreshing honesty.
Questions have inevitably been asked about Norman Mapeza’s capacity to lead the Warriors, following the defeat in Mali, and the noisier the voices of disapproval become, the more that Ben Moyo will feel vindicated that he was right to suggest that Norman would be better utilised as an understudy.
I supported Norman’s candidature for the Warriors’ post not because he was the best man possible but because, among those who were in contention at the time, he appeared to offer the best hope for the team. Tom Saintfiet, who was chosen ahead of Norman, looked too lightweight to justify an investment in his services and he had done very little with Namibia to suggest that he would turn around the fortunes of the Warriors and, that the selection process that won him the job was flawed, only helped to harden attitudes.
Interestingly no national team has turned to Tom since he lost his bid to become the Warriors’ coach and he has found convenient refugee in Jordan coaching a club side, just like Gunners, just like Shooting Stars, just like Chicken Inn and just like Monoz.
Three games into the Nations Cup campaign, two points on the board, a defeat, no win, two draws and a single goal to our credit, that’s how our scorecard reads right now. And, the big question is, do I still believe in Norman?
Yes, I do!
By his own admission, we haven’t done as well as we might have wanted, and when results don’t come, there is no reason for a coach to find an alibi because every coach should be judged by his team’s performance and Norman shouldn’t be any different.
He deserves the criticism he is getting because it certainly didn’t make sense for me to see him fielding Benjamin Marere, given that he had barely touched a ball in a competitive match, in the starting XI in Mali on Saturday on the right side of the midfield.
Yes, one man doesn’t make a team but he certainly makes a difference.
Marere needed to be tested in a match situation, the pressure conditions that the Dynamos boys are playing in their Champions League games, for Norman to get a good assessment of the possible impact that the winger was likely to make in Bamako. Given that there were a number of options, with Khama Billiart playing on the right side and Ovidy Karuru or Denver Mukamba filling that left side role, I believe Norman should not have gambled with Marere because we wasted 45 minutes in Bamako.
Marere is a good player, no doubt about that, but so much has happened to him in the past few months that it was suicidal to believe that he would make an immediate impact in Bamako.
This is a man who changed clubs because, as were heard, he was traumatised by what had happened to him during his stay at Dynamos when his pregnant wife was pushed out of the house they rented because his employers had not paid the rent and, even as Washington Arubi and Murape Murape returned to Dynamos, he said NO.
Clearly this was a man with issues on his mind and needed time to make the adjustment in his life and a big battle in Bamako was certainly not the kind of test that he was going to pass, especially against a background where he had not played a competitive game in a long time. And, when you consider he missed CHAN because of injury, Marere needed time.
We had problems with that right side of attack in the game against Cape Verde when a lifeless Clemence Matawu paralysed our attacking formula at the National Sports Stadium and we had the same problem in Bamako when Marare failed to click.
By the time Norman rang the changes, Mali had a lead to hold on to and all they could do was to repel our attacks in the second half.
Norman should have been brave in Mali, the kind of bravery that we usually see in Moses Chunga, and he should have plunged into battle with the Denvers and Archiefords because, the good thing with doing so, is that – even in the event that the team loses – the fans can see the project that is being created, and can see life in the future.
Yes, we have some established players plying their trade in foreign lands but the time has also come for us to evaluate their contributions to the Warriors and, if we find that we are not making any headway with these guys, why not introduce the future now?
Yes, it was always going to be difficult for us to win in Mali and, if there is a credit that emerged from that game, then it comes from the fact that we fought hard and long and, on another day and with another referee, the foul on Nyasha Mushekwi was a penalty and not a yellow card for diving.
We have found our spirit, which was crucial, and what remains now is to find our confidence that we can win big matches again and Mapeza’s fortune is that he has two big games at home coming, which can change a lot of things, and the two leading teams have two big away matches coming and, crucially, they clash against each other in Bamako.
Soon Knowledge Musona will be back from injury, Khama Billiart has broken his international football virginity and will be a better player by June, Denver Mukamba will have played more games, possibly in the Champions League, to toughen his spirit, Archie Gutu will not be carrying demons from a contractual dispute and the dark cloud of Asiagate, and all the uncertainty it has brought among the players, would have passed.
Norman would have gone to Germany, or there about, to further his coaching education and, generally, we should be in better shape, three months time, than we were in Bamako.
What is clear is that Cape Verde, with seven points today, have a battle to get to 11 points with two big away games in Liberia and Mali.
What is clear is that Mali, with six points today, have a tough battle to get to 11 points with two big away games in Zimbabwe and Liberia to follow and a massive home game against Cape Verde in Bamako. What is clear is that if the Warriors win their last three games, including two at home, they will plunge right back into contention because, with all the visits to Liberia by the others, and the big elimination bout between Cape Verde and Mali on the horizon, points are there to be dropped.
Yes, I agree with Mapeza that we can’t surrender now and I also believe we need to keep faith in our coach.
Botswana are going to the 2012 Nations Cup, for the first time in their history, because they invested their faith in coach Stanley Tshoasane and, since 2008, he has been working with the team. Interestingly, even after qualifying for the 2012 Nations Cup finals, Botswana played a friendly international against Morocco on Wednesday.
Of course, we didn’t.
DeMbare And The Silver Lining
Amid all this wreckage of our dreams, it is refreshing to see that we still have men who are going on the frontline and doing a good job for their country and Dynamos’ stunning 4-1 victory over MC Alger in the first leg of the Champions League was the kind of romantic story that our football had been praying for.
I have seen Denver’s goal on that day, again and again on CD, and can’t get over it.
The dummy that he sold to that defence, eliminating three people at once, the swift change of pace and direction and the accuracy to drill the ball home with that left foot, all in one movement, was the kind of individual magic that has been lacking at our football stadiums.
The kind of performances that illuminate the stadiums and, crucially, help to bring the crowds back to the grounds because there is a certain guarantee that there will be something beautiful to be seen, each and every week, and that was the case when Joel Shambo was playing.
And when Stix Mtizwa was playing, when Vitalis Takawira was playing, when Willard Khumalo was playing and when you went to watch Arcadia United, not because you supported them, but because you knew Mike Abrahams would do something special.
There is hope in this Dynamos project but something tells me that the away goal, that cheap penalty they conceded, might come back to haunt them tomorrow night in Algiers.
It’s never easy playing a second leg away from home, especially going to North or West Africa, and I still remember when I went to Algiers with a very good Blackpool team in 1995, in the semi-finals of the old Cup of Cup Winners, carrying a 2-1 lead over JS Kabylie.
Shambo was the head coach and the image of him being escorted out of the playing field, after having been expelled by Egyptian referee Gamal Ghandour for questioning his atrocious decisions in favour of the home team, by two soldiers with guns pointed at him as if he was a captured mercenary, still sends shivers down my spine.
We fought gallantly that day but the officials helped the Algerians’ cause and we lost 0-1, and crashed out on the away goals, in a defeat whose pain can still be felt today by many of the Ndochi boys in action that night.
It’s not going to be easy for Dynamos in Algiers tomorrow and I think MC Alger showed enough, in terms of their technical strength, in the first leg to suggest that they will give us a very good run in their backyard.
Anyone who believes that this game is over needs to think again and MC Alger have a very good chance of scoring three goals, either because they have the technical capacity or because they will be getting a helping hand from officials in home conditions, and how Dynamos will respond is what will determine their fate.
Will DeMbare sit back and play a game alien to Mutasa’s values? Will they pass it around with aplomb and get the goal that will kill the Algerians’ spirits?
The last time Dynamos were in Algeria last year, they were beaten 0-3 by Entente Setif, which means that such a scoreline is possible, but that was a poor Glamour Boys’ team.
This is a better Glamour Boys’ team but it has a battle on its hands.
Muzenda Lost It Badly
DeMbare chief executive Casper Muzenda was apparently unhappy this week when we questioned him how the team suddenly found itself failing to travel as scheduled on Wednesday and went ballistic, as they usually do when they run short of explanations, accusing us of being anti-Dynamos.
Refreshingly, after years of being accused of being pro-Dynamos, it brought a good feeling to find someone, especially from the Glamour Boys’ establishment, accusing us of being anti-DeMbare.
In a democracy you have to respect Muzenda’s views.
His problem is that he needs a reminder, and that means probably going back to school, which would be ironic for someone who retired some years back from his post as headmaster, to understand what it means to be big and the scrutiny such a status brings.
Maybe we should remind Muzenda that we don’t hurt Dynamos and, instead, we feel proud that we have a football club like the Glamour Boys, in our country, which can compete so well on the continent and which can be ranked sixth or ninth in Africa.
The Glamour Boys are a good brand and when they win, a big chunk of our readership smiles and, inevitably, it translates to better sales of the newspaper but that doesn’t mean Dynamos are immune to scrutiny and criticism and when they fail to travel, Muzenda shouldn’t expect us not to ask questions. What we are opposed to, Mr Muzenda, is bad administration at the people’s team and, when we raise the dust, it’s not about our hatred of the Dynamos brand but an attempt to inform their fans about what is happening at the club and hoping that it will also help them get answers to their problems.
There is a big difference between the Dynamos players and their coaches and the administration side of the team. Muzenda is chief executive of Dynamos, whatever that means, and when there are problems with contracts and key players are stopped from playing a big match, we have a right to ask questions about what he is doing in his office or wherever.
The same is also true when the team fails to travel. The mistake that Muzenda can make is to believe that, as chief executive, he is as popular as the players who play for the team.
Fans will pay to watch the boys. Let Muzenda call for a meeting of the Dynamos fans at Rufaro and see how many people will come, to listen to him speak, for free.
He will be lucky if he gets five people.
We find it strange that Muzenda finds it normal that Dynamos players can travel to Algeria wearing Footballers Union of Zimbabwe T-shirts, donated for free by Gazza and his troops, so that the team gets a measure of uniformity.
Where are the tracksuits Mr Muzenda? Sorry, I had forgotten we aren’t supposed to ask.
The Most Hated Company In Britain
The results of an online survey of more than 1,000 people, conducted by Online Opinions, show that Manchester United is most hated firm in Britain.
No other football team is anywhere near as detested as the Red Devils, which secured 26 per cent of the overall vote, as their success, power and huge worldwide following were cited as major reasons for aggrieving other football fans.
Second on the list of hated companies was Ryan air, with 23 per cent of those polled claiming to be fed up with the airline’s ‘money-grabbing’ ways.
“Manchester United may have the biggest crowds and a winning record but their success and power alienates many others from across the country,” the company that conducted the survey said.
“In both north-west England and London they are hated by 31 per cent – though many of these are probably supporters of their biggest rivals.
That figure falls to 22 per cent in the South West and 23 per cent in East Anglia.”
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chicharito!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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