Chronicle EditorRobson Sharuko
IF there was a world championship for people who find a lot of romance in the downfall of one of their own, when it comes to sport, more than any other nation on this globe, I’m pretty sure we would have won quite a good chunk of gold medals.Maybe it’s because we have made failure such a big part of our sporting DNA that we find it very comfortable to embrace, let alone celebrate, those occasions as and when one of us, or one of our representative teams, find themselves in a spot of bother.
Or we have made darkness a huge part of our sporting culture that we find it very uncomfortable to embrace, let alone revel, on the occasions as and when a ray of light filters through the clouds of gloom that hover on the horizon.
We would rather read and debate about Knowledge Musona’s failure in the Bundesliga, and somehow derive a lot of satisfaction from doing so, because this is the kind of news, even as depressing as it is, which cheer our spirits.
We are more comfortable watching, and at times cheering, Orlando Pirates’ success story in the Caf Champions League this season, and adopting them along the way, but find nothing extra-ordinary in the remarkable feats of a perennially penniless Dynamos in reaching the final and semi-finals of the same tournament.
Where we find it right to freeze Norman Mapeza from all football-related activities, when we can’t provide any shred of evidence to back claims he was involved in any match-fixing, the Turkish FA find it right to send Fenerbahce into this season’s Uefa Champions League for a battle against Arsenal, despite questions related to their role in a match-fixing scandal.
And, this week, we were at our very best when it was leaked that Devon Chafa, the promising Zimbabwe international midfielder, had failed a routine doping test and, being the classic vultures that we are, we quickly smelt the blood and the story went viral on social media as we feasted on it.
While the light-hearted inter-club banter, which suddenly exploded, like those CAPS United fans calling him Devon Chamba, is not only normal but should be tolerated if we are going to keep the spark alive in our football, what I couldn’t understand was a number of seasoned voices, in our game, making premature judgments on this footballer.
Why was there a sudden rush for the posting of such sensitive material, on the unregulated social media sites, by men and women whose positions in the industry should have armed them with the knowledge that what they were doing was not only improper but certainly very unfair on the young player?
What were the benefits of those so-called exclusive posts on social media, the breaking news that Devon Chafa had failed a doping test, without giving any consideration to the fact that his identity was protected in such cases and these leaks were one month old and, within those 30 days, so much had happened?
Why did these guys, in all honesty, expose the defenceless Devon Chafa to the lynching that they knew he was going to receive on those forums, especially given that they had spiced the story, with a fake spin that his failed dope test had disastrous consequences on the Warriors’ CHAN final dreams?
Why did I get an impression that there was a celebratory tone to the whole chorus of posts, excitement that Chafa had fallen foul of the doping regulations, joy that this highly-rated player was, if you looked at the tone of their posts, a shameless drug cheat who had tried to cheat his way with some performance-enhancing drugs?
To make matters worse there was that foolish spin, which one would have expected to come from disgruntled Zambian journalists still nursing their wounds, emotional and otherwise, of the reality check that for all the stuff they had fed their readers, that their team was superior to ours, we had proved them otherwise in Ndola.
Somehow, the Devon Chafa story was clothed with innuendoes, if not falsehoods, that his failed dope test, which wasn’t confirmed yet given that only an examination of a B sample would do that, would result in the Warriors being thrown out of the CHAN finals. But that’s exactly what we are as a people, isn’t it, finding a lot of romance in the downfall of one of our own, when it comes to sport, the reason why I’m pretty sure we would have won quite a good chunk of gold medals if there was a world championship for this.
Thank God, Fifa Are Quite Professional
Fifa are very professional, when it comes to handling such sensitive issues, and it’s their policy not to reveal the identity of any player, caught in a doping storm, until after all the procedures have been fulfilled, all the boxes ticked and a determination made.
They know that retaining a positive test in an A sample, for a substance like predinosone, which can be taken in a number of the regular medications, doesn’t necessarily make one a drug cheat and that’s why they insist on a B sample and, crucially, they also ask the footballer and his medical team to give a detailed report of why this happened.
That’s why Fifa didn’t tell anyone that Chafa had failed a dope test or violated their anti-doping regulations, keeping everything in the boardroom, but – as is always the case with our national game – there is a very thin line that runs between confidentiality and leakages, with such leaks meant to inflict the greatest possible amount of embarrassment.
It’s a culture that some people within our Football Association encouraged, when those leaks of confidential material from Fifa from the Zifa office was serving their agenda against certain individuals, and it has just snowballed now and, sadly, this has now come to haunt helpless fellows like Devon Chafa who are just mere pawns.
Chafa is accountable to his actions, no doubt about that, and as a professional athlete he should know what to take and what not to take.
He says he took this predinosone in medication prescribed by his family doctor, and doubting his story, whose credibility is rooted in the fact that this substance does not in any way enhance his performances, certainly sounds very unfair on a lad described by his club chairman as “one player whose character is not dubious.”
If Chafa was a professional in America’s Major League Baseball there wouldn’t be any problem with the traces of predinosone found in his system because it’s not outlawed in that league of mega-rich superstars.
Barry Bonds, one of the greatest baseball players of all-time, a 14-time All-Star, routinely used to take predinosone as an anti-inflamatory substance to lessen the swelling in his legs. Predinosone is a steroid, that’s what the medical experts say, but it’s called a glococorticosteroid and different from the anabolic variety, those that enhance performance by bolstering muscle mass and reducing recovery time.
“The similarity is like that between orange juice and gasoline: They’re both liquid,” explains Dr Charles Yesalis, a steroids expert and professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University.
“One is a performance enabler (the glucocorticosteroid) and the other (anabolic steroid) is a performance enhancer – it helps you beyond what your natural abilities would be.”
Noel Munzabwa, who has crafted a double life working in pharmacies and also doing some football writing in this country, raised a big point this week when he said he was pretty sure that a huge number of our footballers, if subjected to the same Fifa test, would possibly retain a similar positive test like Chafa because they have been exposed to predinosone in more ways than one.
If Munzabwa is right, which you expect him to be given that this is an area that he specialises in, can we safely claim that all our footballers, who have been exposed to predinosone through the medication they have taken over the course of time, and could test positive if subjected to that same Fifa test, are drug cheats?
Certainly not and I believe that rather than slaughter Devon Chafa as the cheat who tried to beat the system by using drugs, we should try and use his unfortunate case as a reference point, in an educational drive that will help our footballers, especially those in the teenage ranks, so that they retain an awareness of the dangers of the medication they can take.
But Why Were We Euphoric About
Our Disqualification That Never Was?
The Devon Chafa story triggered a wave of reports on social media, some of them posted by men and women whom the ordinary fans look up to for the provision of accurate information on what is happening behind the scenes, and what caught my attention was the frenzy that appeared to suggest that the Warriors would be kicked out of the CHAN finals.
The buzz was so loud that it was heard across the Zambezi in Lusaka and the Football Association of Zambia, feeding off the hype that was coming from here, even found it necessary to write to Caf and enquire about the status of Chafa’s eligibility to play in that CHAN final qualifier.
While they didn’t tell us, they must have been wondering, up there in Lusaka, what the hell had gone into the minds of the Zimbabweans, what were we smoking that was making some of us appear trigger happy to prematurely announce that there was a possibility the national team would be kicked out of the CHAN finals.
They had expected us to be drowning in the euphoric celebrations of being the first team to beat them at the Levy Mwanawasa, since Chipolopolo turned that stadium into their home and fortress, and the first team to beat them in Ndola in 45 years but all they got were voices saying don’t despair Zambia, we are trying to get ourselves disqualified.
It was as if we were sending the Zambians a message that we know we can’t beat you in your backyard, we know we can only do it when we are using someone who is breaking the regulations, all that sick and sad stuff, which sadly is very much a big part of our DNA, as a sporting nation, and as a people.
It also runs even among our politicians, you hear it in their speeches every day, they want us to suffer, they want medical supplies to run out in the hospitals, food supplies to run out in the shops, fuel supplies to run out in the service stations, everything to grind to a halt, all for the sake of advancing their cause.
We all have issues against the people who run our football but whatever our differences, the worst that we could do is wish our national team ill-luck or a miserable run of results, all for the sake of exposing the shortcomings of those in charge of the game, because it’s foolish and the least we could do is appreciate the grand efforts of the Warriors who are finding ways to be successful.
I have my big issues with the majority of people who are running our football and I won’t back off from my stance that most of them are absolute rubbish to hope for their rehabilitation, expecting them to become better administrators tomorrow, is as hopeless as applying lipstick to a frog hoping that will give it the charm to win Animal Planet’s Miss World beauty pageant.
But whatever those issues, they can’t cloud my passion to see the Warriors doing well, it’s a love affair cemented at birth, and boy oh boy I enjoyed that fall of the Zambians in Ndola, and anyone who feels aggrieved by that can go and dive into the Epworth pool of death.
I guess I had warned them, right on Match Day, in this very column, predicting that Zimbabwe were going to win in Ndola and, in case you missed it, this is what I wrote last Saturday:
The Zambians have the advantage, having the psychological boost of having won the two teams’ last encounter at the same venue in the Cosafa Cup final last month, and emerging out of the contest at Rufaro without serious scars although the window that they left open, where an away goal for the Warriors counts double, means that this game is a lot closer than it looks.
Somehow, against all odds, I’m inclined to believe that Gorowa and his men will get the result that they need to go through, whether it’s a scoring draw that gives them the tie on away goals rule or an outright victory is irrelevant, and you just get the feeling that the Zambians will fall on their sword of bloated confidence that borders on arrogance.
To God Be The Glory
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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