adminON Thursday morning, I was invited to a function where there was a presentation of a bankable document for a US$145 million project whose developers say will be the jewel in the crown to Harare’s property portfolio. In attendance were three outgoing ministers, a former US Congressman Mel Reynolds, a cast of experts from South Africa, including a representative of iconic hotel brand Hilton Worldwide, and a number of local professionals in fields of architecture, tourism, banking and the media.
This was a different function to the ones that I usually go to — there was no football to talk about but just millions of dollars, a five-star hotel and an adjacent retail and office segment all being part of one grand upmarket complex.
While this wasn’t about football, what couldn’t be lost in the web of people talking about millions of dollars, five-star properties and upmarket developments was the reality that the guy behind this dream project was a football man out and out.
Farai Jere is no stranger to our national game, he has been in the trenches for some time now, and was part of the administrative team that made CAPS United champions and, in the six years leading to 2013, invested a substantial amount of money to keep the Green Machine afloat.
He sharply divides opinion, especially in his CAPS United camp, with his fierce critics saying for all the money that he injected into the club, the fact that there wasn’t a good return, in terms of success on the field and major trophies in those half-a-dozen year, was an indictment of the managerial skills he employed to run their club.
That CAPS United have shown a lot of life this season, their first campaign since Jere moved out of the club’s administrative structures, and they are now just three points behind the leaders with two thirds of the campaign completed, will no doubt be used by those critics as evidence that their club stalled under Jere’s watch.
Those who back him will tell you that he laid the foundation, it was his vision that saw value in the skills of Hardlife Zvirekwi and it was his money that made the move possible, but more than recruiting players like Leonard Fiyado, Tendai Samanje, Arnold Chivheya, Ronald Kutsanzira, Blessing Zabula and Tapiwa Khumbuyani, it was his decision to invest in coach Taurai Mangiro’s appeal process, which gave him another life in the game, which wasn’t only pregnant with wisdom but certainly a very defining one.
Mangwiro, with his technical expertise, has been the catalyst of this CAPS United revival, he is a shrewd tactician and that he prefers to do his work quietly shouldn’t mask his brilliance, and since his return from his brief Asiagate ban, the Green Machine have become stronger and stronger as a unit.
Neutrals will probably say that Jere’s vision for CAPS United, to have a fully-fledged professional club with its club house, office complex, club shops and training ground was probably bigger than the domestic Premiership and a whale will certainly find it difficult, if not impossible, to swim in a well or a swimming pool.
But, as I sat among the guests at the function in Harare on Thursday, and saw Jere spell out his vision to put together US$145 million to bring iconic hotel brand, Hilton, to this country, with construction work set to begin early next year, I couldn’t help but feel that those neutrals, who felt his vision for a football club was years ahead of the domestic game, were probably right.
Hilton Worldwide don’t just go into bed with anyone in this world and for this global hotel brand to find value in a young investor, barely 40 years old and who comes from Zimbabwe, works in Zimbabwe, is confident of raising his capital in Zimbabwe’s difficult economic environment, was a huge vote of confidence in Farai Jere both as a person and a businessman of exceptional entrepreneurial acumen.
That was all captured by Lasse Ristollenian, the Hilton Worldwide director for Sub-Saharan Africa, who told the guests at Thursday’s function that in his 10 years of service in this iconic company, having interacted with thousands of such projects and thousands of people, he felt Jere was the finest professional that he had dealt with in that decade.
When you have the boss of Hilton Worldwide for Sub-Saharan Africa telling you that you are the most professional chap that he has dealt with in his entire time at the organisation, you know you have made your impact and any other comments, indicating otherwise and generated in the emotional melting pot of football, really don’t matter much.
For all those foreign experts to commit themselves to this project, convinced that it will not only work but it will be a success, was a massive vote of confidence in this guy who, exactly eight years ago, was working as just a mere team manager of CAPS United.
And such has been the stunning transformation in his life that where the bulk of the calls in 2005 were from players, with some saying they have been pushed out of their lodging by landlords unhappy with delays in payment of rent, now the bulk of the calls are from investors who find value in the cluster of upmarket apartments that he wants to build adjacent to his Hilton Harare Hotel.
All The Things That Came Into My Mind
As I sat among those guests and watched this man unveil his vision, I could not help but wonder if Jere’s decision to walk away from the trenches of club management at the beginning of the year was a bigger loss, to football as a national project, than it was to CAPS United as just one member of that big soccer family.
My thoughts wandered, far and wide, and I began asking myself what did this say about our football if our national game, in one way or the other, had failed to retain, or worse still driven away, the expertise of a man who could not only have the vision to build an iconic hotel like Hilton but win the seal of approval, from the Hilton Worldwide family, that he had the capacity to undertake such a grand project.
I saw Mavis Gumbo, the boss of women’s football, sitting among the guests at that ceremony and I wondered whether she was also gripped with the same thoughts that were in my mind, wondering how much we had lost, as a national game, by letting this man, with such extra-ordinary vision, walk away from us?
If our national game could be hostile, or is it inhospitable, for such people, leading them to walk away in frustration, what really were its chances to free itself from the quagmire of under-development that it finds itself in right now?
What chances, really, do we have as a national game to lift ourselves from the web of poverty if it continues to lose men of such character who can have the vision to leave a legacy by thinking outside the box, dreaming beyond just having a bottle store or a lodge, but building an iconic hotel brand like Hilton and, in just one swoop, creating thousands of job opportunities?
What hopes, really, do we have as a football family to move ourselves clear of the tentacles of poverty, which continue to peg us and keep our players poor and their coaching staff very poor, if we are losing the exceptional talents of such gifted individuals like a man who can make a mockery of Mission Impossible and bring Hilton to town?
The problem is that he isn’t the only one, Stan Kudenga, a top banker with exceptional qualities whose first love was to make a difference at his beloved Dynamos, where he started as secretary-general before frustrations pushed him to form his own side Eagles and invest a fortune in this game, walked away and no one cared.
Our hypocrisy knows no boundaries to the extent that we now rush to embrace Tapiwa Matangaidze, and speak highly of him as a man who could help change our football now that he has a big voice in parliament, somehow forgetting that we didn’t shed any tears, to acknowledge the huge loss we had suffered, when such a competent young man was somehow beaten for the Zifa vice-presidency in the last elections.
We now rush to embrace Ziyambi Ziyambi, speaking highly of him as a man who could help change our football now that he has a very powerful voice in Parliament, somehow forgetting that no one cared for him, or asked why he was leaving, when he left the administrative structures of CAPS United and Shooting Stars.
We now rush to embrace Arnold Tsunga, speaking highly of him as a man who could help transform our national game now that he has a very big voice in parliament, somehow pretending that we all never looked away, with some even laughing at him, when his dreams to turn Mutare United into a powerful force collapsed and his services were lost to the game.
We should be asking ourselves tough questions as to why our football keeps pushing its brightest young administrative brains out of the game, why we never give them a chance to bloom to their full potential, why we are never comfortable in their company, why we never give them the space to pursue their vision, why we never embrace them when they are in our company and we plant landmines, just about everywhere, in their path to ensure that they never settle?
If we search our souls, and find the right but painful answers, we will see the reason why our football continues to limp, from one crisis to another, without any real value addition in the past 10 years, while those that we push or force to jump our stricken ship, find success elsewhere.
Maybe, those critics who opposed Farai Jere’s tenure at CAPS United have a valid point, maybe his dreams were suited for a bigger project, something like taking a place on the Zifa board that manages our national football and, with the elections for those positions set for March next year, maybe it’s something that this fellow should seriously consider.
The Great Dynamos Coaches’ Production Machine
There is something about Dynamos and the club’s ability to produce some good coaches and it’s a quality that stands out on the domestic football scene.
Tomorrow, the Warriors will close their forgettable 2014 World Cup qualifier with a date against Mozambique at Rufaro, with a former DeMbare man, Ian Gorowa, in charge of the technical team while his assistant, Callisto Pasuwa, is the current boss at the Glamour Boys.
Our poor World Cup campaign, I guess, was put into context this week when one considers that while South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana, went into the final group matches with a chance of winning the ticket to the final qualifiers, we were the only one, among the regional big boys, who didn’t have a chance.
I was looking at the Castle Lager Premiership table this week and realised that the clubs have completed two thirds of the campaign and, after 20 games, four of the five teams at the top are under the guidance of coaches made at Dynamos.
Pasuwa and his Glamour Boys took over as leaders, Bigboy Mawiwi is in second place with his Sunshine City Boys, Taurai Mangwiro is in fourth place, just three points off the pace, with his Green Machine and Lloyd Mutasa is in fifth place with his FC Platinum.
Impressive, isn’t it?
Who Will Be Champions This Year?
CAPS United’s stunning revival, in which the Green Machine have not lost in 10 league games and moved only three points off the pace set by the leaders, has to be the story of the 2013 Castle Lager Premiership season so far. You have to take a bow to Makepekepe for the way they have turned it around and it’s so refreshing to see so many CAPS United fans having a smile on their face and believing that this could be the year that their side ends its lengthy wait for the league title.
For that dream to come true, much will certainly depend on their next game, a big one, against the team they just can’t beat these days and if Mangwiro and his men can end four years of waiting for a league win by beating their city rivals next Sunday, boy oh boy, they would have taken a huge leap of faith.
It’s too close to call, with Dynamos having all those tricky away games against Hwange, Highlanders, Chicken Inn and Triangle, but then that’s why they are champions.
Who do you think will win this championship? Chat with me on WhatssApp messenger, text, email, Facebook or Twitter.
To God be The Glory
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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