adminand in the quagmire of the impasse that followed, Fifa crafted a roadmap for the restoration of order.
The roadmap, weighed down by personal interests, in-fighting and messy tribal politics, predictably veered off track and Fifa’s reaction was to suspend the Ethiopian FA, kick the national team out of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, four games in their campaign, and boot them out of the 2010 Nations Cup qualifiers.
To the average Ethiopian, this really didn’t mean much.
After all, their national team had not qualified for the Nations Cup for 26 years, their last show coming in ’82, four times they had withdrawn from the qualifying process, within that period, and on eight occasions they had tried, and failed, to make it to Africa’s biggest football festival since their last appearance.
Back in the Swinging Sixties, Ethiopia had been a powerful football force on the continent – winning the Nations Cup on home soil in ’62 and qualifying for a couple of finals but the arrival of the ’70s brought a bleak spell for football in the East African country.
After a year on the sidelines, in which they also missed the 2008 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, the Ethiopians were brought back into the international football family by Fifa in July 2009 and a new FA leadership, headed by Sahlu Gebremariam, took office promising that their game would never go back to the valley of darkness.
Three years later, Gebremariam and his FA guided Ethiopia to end 31 years of waiting, for qualifying for the Africa’s biggest football festival, when their national team triumphed, on the away goals rule, in a 10-goal thriller against Sudan, to book a place at the 2013 Nations Cup final in South Africa.
Today, Ethiopia, a country known more for its distance runners than its football stars, stands on the threshold of their biggest achievement in football with a place at the 2014 Fifa World Cup finals there for the taking.
No East African country has ever qualified for the World Cup finals and today, the Walya Antelopes need just a victory, against whipping boys Central African Republic, in their final game and victory in the two-match play-off that will follow, and a ticket to the World Cup in Brazil will have been secured.
So, Gebremariam and his team at the Ethiopian FA have done wonders, performed miracles and written what is clearly a beautiful story – lifting their football from the doldrums of isolation, in the wake of the Fifa suspension, to ending 31-years in the wilderness of chasing a Nations Cup ticket, all this coming in just three years.
And, they haven’t stopped there, they have taken the Walya Antelopes to their furthest point, in their history of chasing a ticket to the World Cup, and given every Ethiopian reason to believe that they are as good, when it comes to football, as the best there is on the continent.
A game that only five years ago was a source of so much friction and battles, leading to the country’s suspension from the international football family, has now bounced back, thanks to the grand work that has been put in by Gebremariam and his team at the Ethiopian FA, to unite a huge nation of 86 million people – the most populous landlocked country in the world.
Given what they have done, to lift their football from a quagmire where the game knew nothing but strife, stalked by serial under-achievement, weighed down by perennial failure and a source of newspaper headlines coloured by negativity, Gebremariam and his team at the Ethiopian FA deserve gold medals for their administrative wonders.
No Ethiopia FA team has done more, in terms of lifting the game in their country, than Gebremariam and his men and while some will say the group that oversaw the winning of the Nations Cup in ’62 did more, it’s a fact that only four teams took part in that final and, at home, they were favoured to win.
But, for all the mountains they have moved since taking office, Gebremariam and his men are also human beings, just like you and me, and capable of making mistakes, including some big ones, and three weeks ago, they made one huge blunder.
In a moment of fatal administrative paralysis, they forgot that one of their players, Minyahel Teshone, had picked up two yellow cards, during this 2014 World Cup campaign, and was ineligible for the away tie against Botswana, and their foolish decision to field him could cost their country a date with destiny.
That 2-1 win in Botswana is now set to count for nothing, with Fifa expected to nullify that result and the Ethiopians will lose three points, which will be donated to Botswana for the injustice they suffered for playing against a team that used an ineligible player, and what was an insurmountable five-point lead, over Bafana Bafana, will be just two points with one game still to play.
There is anger on the streets of Addis Ababa, and justifiably so, because for a brief period, after their 2-1 win over Bafana Bafana, millions of Ethiopians believed that their finest hour had arrived and that a blunder, by the people they invested all their trust in to manage their football, could destroy those dreams, was unbearable.
The Price The Ethiopia FA paid
That the current Ethiopia FA had changed football in their country, and given the national team a very competitive edge once again, didn’t matter in that melting pot of anger that followed the monumental blunder of fielding an ineligible player.
That they had taken the game from the backwaters of isolation and given it a spring in its step, bringing back the fans to the stadiums and giving a team like St George an environment where they could grow and compete against the best on the continent in the Champions League, didn’t matter much in the wave of anger that followed their huge blunder.
That they had breathed life into the national team, and turned the Walya Antelopes into a good team once again it ended 31 years of waiting to play at the Nations Cup by booking their place in South Africa this year, didn’t matter much as the true impact of their grave blunder began to unfold.
The Ethiopia FA secretary-general, Ashenafi Ejigu, the administration’s second most powerful man, was sacked this week, the vice-president of the FA, Berhanu Kebede, offered his resignation, because he felt culpable, but this was rejected by the board pending further consultations.
The FA president, Gebremariam, said he will submit his resignation in the upcoming elections for seats on the board, and is likely to step down as early as September because he was concerned leaving now, before the final World Cup qualifier against Central African Republic, would rock the boat and damage their campaign.
But it’s what he said, in accepting responsibility as the leader of the FA, which mattered and brought out his true colours as a leader of exceptional quality whose legacy has been cemented even if he leaves office and even in the event their boob costs the Walya Antelopes dearly.
“THIS WAS A MASSIVE BLUNDER, SO WE ALL SHOULD HAVE RESIGNED,” Gebremariam told Reuters.
“BUT WE HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES AHEAD SO WE VOTED TO STAY UNTIL SEPTEMBER.”
That responsibility in September is a decisive World Cup qualifier against Central African Republic and, a victory in that tie likely to be played on neutral ground again, would see Ethiopia book their place in the final two-legged play-off for a place in Brazil.
What charms the heart about Gebremariam, despite the gravity of the blunder his association committed, is his frank admission that they erred, his willingness to take responsibility for the chaos that has erupted and his honesty to concede that their mistake warranted the resignation of his FA board.
He doesn’t use the fact that his FA dramatically changed football in his country, the phenomenal gains they achieved in giving the national team a competitive edge and the success that came with grabbing their first Nations Cup ticket in 31 years, as a protective wall that should shield them against censure should they make a mistake.
That Ethiopia are on the verge of an historic qualification, for a place at the World Cup finals, is irrelevant because, in his world, there is a price to pay for coming short, when it comes to serving public office, and he should leave.
All that he did, he says, was for the people of Ethiopia and, as a leader, when he let them down, as he did in letting an ineligible player be used in a key World Cup qualifier, he should face the consequences and, in his world, the only way to go is leave his job in public office as the FA boss.
The FA secretary-general, his right-hand man, who is the equivalent of our FA chief executive here, has already been dismissed for that blunder, his deputy has already submitted his resignation and, as things stand, Gebremariam would be gone by September.
We Live In A Different World
We share something in common with the Ethiopians, their national team uses gold and green colours just like us and Gebremariam and his FA employed Tom Saintfiet, after he had left this country under a cloud, but he didn’t last long in his job – serving as national team coach for just five months and quitting before the 2014 World Cup qualifiers got underway.
Saintfiet also accused the Ethiopian FA, when he left, that they were not professional, they failed to honour some of the contractual agreements, which means that, just like us, they have major challenges in terms of funding their operations.
When one considers that just five years ago, there was so much turmoil in their organisation Fifa was forced to suspend them from the international football family, then you can see that they are not saints and have the same challenges that we also face.
But their difference with us, which has enabled them to make giant strides in the past four years, is that they have a leadership that is able to acknowledge that it failed, as and when that happens, that is able to concede that it made a blunder, as and when that happens, and that is ready to find ways to address the situation.
We have had an entire World Cup campaign that has been, at best, a joke and at worst, a shame, our worst run in our battles to try and play at the globe’s biggest football festival in 33 years, but for all the chaos that has stalked our campaign, no one is ready to take responsibility and concede that it has terribly gone off the rails.
We have blown two Nations Cup campaigns, since the current Zifa board came into office – the one in 2012, destroyed forever that afternoon when a Mickey Mouse GNU coaching arrangement was put in place for the home game against Cape Verde and the one in 2013 when all we needed to qualify was beat two teams, including Burundi.
But even against that depressing background, of persistent failure, including where the fatal cocktail of our administrative bungling ripped life out of our campaign, there is no one ready to raise his arm to take responsibility for that and, crucially, tell the nation what measures have been put in place for a better tomorrow.
When we fail to organise a trip, to a World Cup qualifier, as was the case two weeks ago, it’s supposed to be normal because we have no money, we are weighed down by a huge debt and no one appears ready to come into bed with the FA to help them and the responsibility should not be taken by those who are in our football leadership structures but someone else.
If this was a normal football country, Benedict Moyo would have handed his resignation last week, for the part he played in taking his Warriors delegation all the way to Senegal when there was no confirmation that Peter Ndlovu, Lloyd Mutasa, the acting team manager Patrick Mutesva, the cook and, himself, would proceed for the final and important leg of the journey into Conakry.
But, because we are not a normal football country, Benedict Moyo will compile his report, claim that he was overwhelmed by the challenges that rocked that trip, he did the best that he could under the circumstances, he ensured that those who remained behind in Senegal were safe and, crucially, brought everyone back home in one piece.
Moyo played a central role in luring Saintfiet here, including hiring a cab to take the Belgian from the airport when he arrived for his nightmarish tour of duty, which means that he shares something in common with the sacked Ethiopian FA secretary-general, Ashenafi Ejigu, who also liked what he saw in Saintfiet, and gave him the job to coach the Walya Antelopes.
But Ejigu paid a huge price, for forgetting that one of his players had received two yellow cards and was ineligible for the game against Botswana, and he was sacked this week from his post while Moyo has given his explanation, for the chaos that rocked his trip to Senegal, the administrative bungling that saw Hardlife Zvirekwi losing a passport that was supposed to be in the hands of the team manager, and will survive to lead the Warriors on another trip.
In those little things our differences with the Ethiopians are shaped and the reason why one country is making giant strides, in terms of its football, and the other remains paralysed, stuck in a sand trap of under-achievement and in a world engulfed by darkness with nothing to cheer the spirits of its fans and everything to wreck their emotions.
Three weeks ago, Bafana Bafana missed a connection flight, from Yaounde to Douala, in Cameroon as they flew to a World Cup qualifier against the Central African Republic and there was a huge outcry, in the South African media, over that because, in their normal world, such things should not happen.
They were already in Cameroon, which was the host country of a game played on neutral territory, and it was like missing a flight from Harare to Bulawayo but, still, it created a huge uproar in the South African media because, in the world that they want to shape for their national football team, such things should not be allowed to happen.
But we are there to accept anything, because that’s what we are as a football community, and our leaders don’t seem to realise they work on behalf of the fans and are accountable to those supporters.
In our world we see enemies, where we are supposed to see critics who bring constructive criticism that can help us develop, we see shadows of third forces where we are supposed to see the dire consequences of our shortcomings, we are never wrong, there is always a reason why we failed and we will ride storms.
As long as we live in that artificial world, we can wave goodbye to any prospects of ever competing, and succeeding, in getting a place at a Nations Cup finals, let alone a place at the World Cup, even in a changing football world where Ethiopia, who were outlaws just four years ago, are now just three steps from heaven.
Thanks Barry And Mike
In the past few weeks, listeners to a weekday daily radio sports show on Power FM, which starts shortly after 5pm, have been hearing a lot of my voice, thanks to an invitation extended by Barry Munandi and Mike Madoda, the hosts of Sportsline, to provide expert analysis on local and international football matters.
Sadly, someone at Zifa feels that the show has become too critical of the association and was uncomfortable with my views, and a whole lot of issues were raised and I was informed on Thursday that I won’t be providing such analysis.
Not that it matters, really, because I’m not exactly a radio man, I feel my strengths are elsewhere, although in the company of Barry and Mike, I felt a little comfortable and I will miss their jokes and their free spirit.
But you can only silence all of the voices some of the time, some of the voices all of the time but never all of the voices all of the time and that I can’t do analysis for Sportsline, which was for free, will not suddenly see Zifa’s audited financial statements being produced and published, which in a normal football country, should be mandatory.
Neither will that see the next Warriors’ trip being arranged without hassles or make Fifa change rules, for our group, that the team in last place now qualifies for the next stage, which will give a positive sound-bite to what has been a depressing campaign.
Thanks Barry, Thanks Mike, one fine day we will chat, again, live about our football and it won’t be a public relations exercise.
Thank God, The Green Machine Is Alive
Last Saturday, at the National Sports Stadium, I saw some happy CAPS United faces and it’s during such times when you get to appreciate the true power of football.
Taurai Mangwiro and his men have defied the odds to take their campaign so far, just three points off the pace, at the halfway mark and on Saturday they played with spirit and focus and, on the balance of effort, they deserved their big victory over Bosso.
Highlanders will feel aggrieved, with justification too, that the decisive goal came after Leonard Fiyado had strayed into an offside position, something confirmed by television replays, and after the controversy of the last-gasp goal they conceded against Dynamos, they will feel Harare and its referees works against their interests.
But you have to take a bow for the way the CAPS United players performed, without fear, and even after they conceded the equaliser, still found the energy to go forward and grab the winner.
The domestic Premiership needs a healthy Green Machine and, last Saturday, we saw one at the National Sports Stadium.
Whether they can sustain such levels, and remain consistent for some time, is their huge challenge.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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