Saints revival on cards

Lovemore Dube Senior Sports Editor
FOUR men sat around a table at a city hotel on Thursday in serious talk. Anyone passing by would have thought it was a deal on the verge of being sealed.
They spoke in low voices deliberately not wanting those seated at the next table to hear the nature of the business. Once one was in the picture about thenature of the meeting one would understand why the agenda was secret.

It was an informal meeting discussing one of the biggest subjects Chronicle has covered in its 120 years of existence — Zimbabwe Saints. At the beginning of the year the club, formed in 1931, was thrown into the dustbin of history when they were kicked out of the Zifa Southern Region Division One Soccer League.

Once the Chronicle crew appeared, jitters could be read in the faces of three of the members. Football club talk is always shrouded in secrecy.
To say the Musa Mandaza-executive kicked the club out of the league is too harsh.

Saints succumbed to the reality that the era of community clubs is gone. Football has evolved to being business and that the administration of it should also change to reflect modern times.

The collapse of the club should have sent a warning to Highlanders and Dynamos that they have to guard jealously the backing they are getting from Adidas, BancABC and Nyaradzo Funeral Assurance. The withdrawal of funding would be like the hangman’s noose being activated.

Whatever the resolution was or will be Saints will have to be owned by someone with a bigger shareholding, with partners.

Black Aces, Gweru United and Mutare United all collapsed despite being owned by communities which were keen on coming to stadia but would not take ownership of the teams by providing more in terms of cash and other resources.

Saints could no longer sustain themselves on the basis of patronage. The Chikwata craze generation long retired and went to the rural areas or are too weak to be actively involved in the game and team.

Their offspring of Muzondiwa Mugadza’s generation grew up in an environment the values of the club were visibly painted all over the house’s walls. Lazy Muzo and his cousins Brian and Rosemary knew that it was the right thing to do by joining Saints’ structures.

But anyone born after the 1988 Chibuku Cup and league winning season, sees no point in subscribing to the Chikwata dream. They have all been diluted by Highlanders’ dominance in the city, AmaZulu’s flamboyance and the emergence of other sporting disciplines apart from the proliferation of other football clubs that offered better incentives.

One would say the club became extinct in a year one of its best footballers ever Max “Shaluza” Tshuma passed on. It marked the final chapter of a historic institution. Neighbours Highlanders were all happy to dominate once they turned the tables on, in the 1980s.

The Bosso faithful liked Saints. They enjoyed the bragging rights exposed at KoMamkhize, down in the dark streets of the townships. The happy debates on Monday mornings in the industrial area were legendary.

But on Thursday evening it was just a quartet discussing the fate or future of a football giant gone to the land of ancestors early this year.

Ishmael Kaguru, Caleb Sengu, Jabulani Chinyangarara all of whom have been administrators at the institution in the last 20 years and club, Zimbabwe and South African football legend Ebson Sugar Muguyo were in deep talk.

The subject was quite simple — how they would go about resuscitating Chikwata.

A biting economic environment, where sport has been reduced to a luxury with companies no longer able to look at it as a corporate social responsibility, is what stands between them and their dream.

Lack of incentives for companies eager to plough something into sport is another factor waiting by the sidelines.

For the over-35 born and bred in Zimbabwe, Saints’ history is enormous. They are the second most successful football club after Highlanders from the City of Kings in the modern day era.

Writing the history of Bulawayo sport in the last 120 years without acres of space dedicated to the club would be mischievous.

“We have taken a break from the game. It is not true to say Saints is extinct, it is too big a name to erase from memory and history.

“There have been challenges in the past and present which then calls for us to put sober minds into gear and explore the way forward. It is unanimous that the Saints brand must be revived and I am among those committed to seeing that Chikwata will be back on the field of play,” said Muguyo.

He belongs to an elite class of Chikwata players among them Steve Kwashi, Steven Chuma, Ephraim Chawanda, Gibson Homela, the late William Sibanda, Max Tshuma, Moses Moyo and Joseph Machingura — true legends of the club.

The former Kaizer Chiefs marvel said the way forward was to start with juniors.

“My view is we should forget about senior players. We have had a rich vein with young talent from the Under-18 squads which took part in the Coca-Cola Inter-Provincial Championships to our schools.

“We would go and ask for players like Willard Khumalo from their parents and schools. Nothing has changed. That conveyor belt of talent still exists and in so doing we will produce Bulawayo talent that will be eager to break a leg for Chikwata and the city’s pride. Reviving Saints is something that I believe could be done and the talent is here in Bulawayo,” said Muguyo.

He said it did not make sense to see talent bred in Bulawayo emerging at other clubs elsewhere in the country forcing city teams to buy from other regions or their own products.

“We have identified two schools to start with whose players we will train and groom for the future. As we start from the bottom the demands will not be so heavy, it will be a programme that we should be able to sustain and we go through the mill until we reach the top. We will not embark on short cuts as they have short gains as experience has taught us in the past,” said the man fans affectionately called Sugar.

Bulawayo clubs now resemble projects from other regions with a few players from junior development signed.

It is something that has even angered Mandaza, the Zifa Southern Region boss.

“We have always been known as the hub of junior development. We have a functional league and vibrant clubs and what is saddening is that our coaches and players are overlooked,” said Mandaza.

Even in national junior tournaments, Bulawayo has received acclaim for fielding players of the right ages while some academies and provinces are making waves with over aged players.

Muguyo strongly believes unity will be key to Saints finding its lost feet in local football. Divisions have rocked the club in the past and sacrificed resources that could have been channelled to the community good of the bigger picture — a successful blue and white half of Bulawayo.

Only time will tell whether now the foundation will last the test that other clubs like Highlanders have.

Established in 1931, Saints is the second oldest football club in the country after Highlanders who were formed in 1926.

Only Highlanders and the now defunct Bulawayo Rovers have enjoyed better success than Chauya Chikwata whose sleek passing game of the 1980s was out of this world and deservedly brought glory in the league and Chibuku Trophy and a semi-final appearance in the Cecafa Club Championships in 1987.

Muguyo said there was a resolution for former club administrators to come to a meeting on September 21 to choose new trustees.

Former players will also be meeting to form a technical department and supporters also to come up with their own structure to pave the way forward for the club.