‘WE ALLOWED THE SHIP TO SAIL’

Phineas Mukwazo
I CAN safely and unapologetically call an occurrence in 2011 as the year in which we “let the ship sail”. “That ship has sailed” is an expression used to describe a lost opportunity or something that is unlikely to happen in current circumstances.

In August 2011 Zimbabwe through Zifa and thanks to the benevolence of both Interpol and Fifa hosted a high profile Integrity in Sport Train the Trainer of Football Players and Referees course.

It was a full and impressive package that was apparently developed to prepare participants to be able to plan and deliver a Fifa/Interpol approved workshop in match manipulation or “match fixing’’ in football to football players, including young players and referees. I think that was borne out of the Asiagate scandal where some Zimbabweans conspired with foreigners to “kill’’ our game all in the name of the Biblical “thirty pieces of silver.’’

The course was a key component of the strategy to increase awareness and resistance to match-fixing through the training of national/organisational trainers.

On successful completion of the course the participants were expected to be able to: plan, prepare and facilitate variable-length workshops for on-pitch targets of match manipulation, including young players on match fixing in football; facilitate the recognition of match-fixing propositions and motivate players and referees to resist and report approached to the competent authorities; specifically address issues that renders sports personnel vulnerable to corruption such as low income and problem gambling.

A match fixing presentation by Elliot Kasu, then a Zifa board member, on Asiagate touched on a number of aspects that drew sympathies and support from participants including Fifa representatives.

Kasu reminded all that betting was real, and that in most cases associations should brace for a backlash from organised syndicates, including local and foreign, their propensity for ruthlessly fighting back when “cornered”. Does that not sound familiar?

Kasu alerted the audience of indicators of match fixing that included a change in lifestyles by the perpetrators.

Kasu also told of the precursor of the scandal in Zimbabwe. He also allayed fears about the consequences of bringing players to book, a notion that some people believed would decimate then current national team, giving an example of Zambia national team that perished on 28 April 1993 in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon killing 18 players. But Zambia hastily put up a national team that went on to reach the Africa Cup of Nations final in less than a year.

Kasu also delved on the indicators of potential match fixing which included the board losing control over the secretariat, lack of record, a non-existent paper trail and inadequate financial benefits for the associations.

He also spoke of the dangers where the (national) team goes on a free fall on global Fifa rankings and loss of interest from both sponsors and spectators.

That was in 2011.

And a lot has happened since then.

BARELY five years down the line, football stakeholders woke up to news that the Zifa board had lifted all the Asiagate bans following a meeting.

Zimbabwe’s national team mainly composed of local players, had, hitherto, gone on tours in Asia and lost several games which led to suspicions of match fixing between 2007 and 2009, a period regarded as the darkest in football history.

The match fixing was reportedly organised by Singaporean Wilson Raj Perumal who was arrested in Finland for attempting to fix Finnish matches.

When the scandal was exposed some 98 Zimbabwean players, officials and journalists were suspended as investigations on the issue began.

These include former Zifa CEO Henrietta Rushwaya, Warriors’ team coaches, Sunday Chidzambwa, Norman Mapeza, and Joey Antipas; players Guthrie Zhokinyu, Edmore Sibanda and several officials including the late Bekithemba “Farr” Ndlovu, and Godfrey Japajapa.

Fifteen people were handed life bans, seven banned for 10 years each, and 37 received five-year bans from all football activities among other sanctions.

Fifa refused to endorse the sanctions on a global scale, and some people were pardoned after appealing while others remained frozen out.

But four years down the line, and a few weeks after the lifting of the Asiagate bans, Zimbabwe finds itself mired in yet another match fixing scandal amid revelations that Zifa had “busted a match-fixing syndicate that had targeted, among other games, to manipulate Zimbabwe’s 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers against Swaziland.

Sport and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane has already admitted that Zimbabwe football was under siege, and that efforts were being made to institute legal frame works to curb the match fixing in the country.

Be that as it may, questions should be asked where responsible authorities threw caution to the wind, following that high profile course on matching fixing thanks to Interpol and Fifa?

In a nutshell what was required after that course was a “holistic” approach to tackle the issue of match manipulation.

After all Fifa/Interpol had provided us with where to start from by schooling us on how to recognise the symptoms of match fixing.

We could have easily grabbed our new found knowledge on match manipulation with both hands. We could have easily held workshops, for example involving all the 16 PSL teams, all the lower division clubs, the national teams, juniors and schools.

Infact we forgot the IMPLEMENTATION.

We, however, applaud the recent moves by both the Ministries of Sport and Recreation, and that of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, who have not only organised gatherings on match fixing, but have also “declared’’ zero tolerance to corruption and match-fixing in sport.

But in the endeavours, they should have also included, in their noble efforts the likes of Kennedy Ndebele, Ndumiso Gumede, Jonathan Mashingaidze, Desmond Maringwa, Brighton Mudzamiri and Felix Tangawarima. Those are the guys who were empowered by Fifa and Interpol in the quest for our bare knuckle fight against match fixing.

As learnt from the Asiagate scandal and the recent revelations of match fixing to hit our shores, we cannot eliminate match fixing but we can certainly minimise its prevalence.

To Chiyangwa, Omega Sibanda, let us indeed redouble our efforts to fight this evil.

After all it is our game which suffers while the likes of Rushwaya and their ilk going all the way to the bank smiling.

And indeed we can make headway through involving that crew, mentioned, above which was empowered by Interpol and Fifa to help bring normalcy to our crestfallen GAME.

Our lives should be defined by opportunities, even the ones that we miss.