adminLovemore Dube
ONE of the best things about sports journalism is travelling. Touring has one good effect in that it widens one’s horizons. You learn more about better practices, world trends and even other people’s culture and of course the personal gratification. Last week I toured the beautiful Seychelles Island of Mahe with How Mine. The Mbada Diamonds runners-up were on the line of duty representing Zimbabwe in the Orange Caf Confederation Cup. A 1-3 loss to St Michel was not enough damage as the miners had won 5-1 at home and they proceeded to the next stage of the tournament 6-4 aggregate winners.
On one of the two full days we had in that country I happened to visit the Seychelles Football Federation offices, a stone’s throw from Stade Linite the venue of the St Michel and How Mine clash.
My brief was to visit old friend Peter Nourrice an administrator with SFF who I have known since 2000. I also had a keen interest to see their head offices built from proceeds of the Fifa Goal Project.
So on Friday morning last week I took off from our beautiful Berjaya Mahe Beach Hotel with head of delegation Tawengwa Hara.
As our hosts welcomed us to the beautiful structure, we stopped breathing the hot and humid air. All of a sudden we were in a small football paradise.
The reception area was beautifully decorated with football memorabilia, brand new apparel from one of the leading sports brands.
Every office starting from the reception had a computer, pictures of some of that country’s soccer heroes who include Cosafa boss Suketu Patel, a former national team goalkeeper.
There are fully fledged offices for referees, education officer, junior development, national team coach, women’s soccer desk, technical director and head of secretariat Jemmy Adela.
There is also a beautiful auditorium for workshops which is used by other bodies.
Over and above that on the first floor there are beautiful rooms that house up to 40 athletes used by national teams and clubs when they visit the Victoria end of Mahe.
The decoration inside the offices and whole block which even has a bar and restaurant leased out to an executive member of St Michel, show the gulf between Seychelles football’s Goal Project and Zimbabwe’s.
Cuthbert Dube has to be commended for the good work he has done on the Mount Hampden facility. Started at the same time with Seychelles’ before 2000, it has lagged behind and it’s only in the last three years that commendable work has been done.
At one stage I wished that Jonathan Mashingaidze who has been at Zifa for close to a decade had come on the trip. I wondered if Dube has been to any other country to appreciate the good work done through Fifa funds.
It was just the same feeling after Soccerex in Durban last year that our Zifa bosses should have been on tour to learn and appreciate what others are doing. At times people live in closed communities and fail to travel elsewhere to learn and map the way forward.
There is no doubt Seychelles despite a small population of 90,000 is headed in the right direction. Their junior development programmes are sponsored by Vijay Construction. Their national junior teams are covered by that sponsorship for them to travel to junior tournaments for exposure.
The senior national team is negotiating with thriving Air Seychelles, one of the world’s rising airliners.
One observation I made is that from Division One to Three, the leagues enjoy sponsorship from Barclays Bank.
Here the bank has restricted its sponsorship to junior soccer and several activities. Many believe that with Standard Bank and Stanbic they can play a bigger role in community well being by supporting the country’s number one sport.
Why are Zimbabwean companies shunning sport? All what sport gets is a pittance.
Another thing I liked about Seychelles football is that they have publicly acknowledged their top 50 administrators and players of the past 30 years of their existence. Zifa appeared to have suffered a still birth and talk of Manchester City playing on these shores vanished into thin air last year. I have over the past years heard Cosmas Zulu speak bitterly at funerals about lack of recognition of former players and coaches.
Simple public acknowledgement of their status would be appreciated if a knowledgeable committee is put in place to identify such people.
Nowadays even a social soccer player gains legend status. But if there is anything that made me proud on the trip was How Mine’s presentation. The boys were smart throughout their travel courtesy of Mbada Diamonds sponsorship.
They wore collared shirts with blazers with matching black pairs of trousers. At all times they wore branded sport attire as opposed to the old situation where one decided to wear what he wanted.
With all the development efforts in place I have no doubt in the next decade Seychelles will pull a shocker in African football. Already clubs like Shabanie Mine, Dynamos and How Mine have found playing there an uphill task with record African Champions League winners Aly Ahly labouring to a 1-0 win recently at Stade Linite.
Online Reporter