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I HAVE always been a football fanatic.
The supporters of soccer teams are the same the world over.
That is why even in very old and developed countries, we sometimes experience the bitter fracas between rival supporters.
We can name some incidents in various countries where after matches violence has claimed lives.
We are more mature in Zimbabwe in that we have not gone to that extent.
However, we still have mad men.
In modern soccer there is no consideration of a player from the point of view of his nationality, race, tribe or religion.
Soccer teams are now multi-racial, multi-national and choose their players or even buy their players only in consideration of their performance.
For instance, Highlanders Football Club has always had players from every province of Zimbabwe, from every tribe, among oathers.
It is a pity that one foolish man does not realise that as it is now, we sometimes have more than half players in the team who may not even come from Matabeleland.
Dynamos may not necessarily have players from Mashonaland.
There are many black players in English teams, mostly from Africa.
But a man with a small mind does not read all this.
We hope our gallant players from Highlanders who are from other provinces will treat the comment on the placard from the Sports Column of the Herald of September 13 with the contempt it deserves.
I do not spare my condemnation to the reporter who has made an issue of this unreasonable comment.
Is Erol Akbay from Matabeleland? Which Shonas is the author of this derogative comment referring to?
Does he not understand that the team that beat Dynamos was made up of Shona and Ndebele players?
Let our reporters write on sports and not go around fishing for destructive and shameful comments to arouse unnecessary tension.There is no room for regionalism, tribalism or racism in soccer.
It is a beautiful game. Please do not spoil it.
Hon. Col (Rtd) T.J. Dube, MP
Online Reporter