Where are the young brains?

Since the late 70’s the world over, the sports industry has been shifting from a recreational and amateur activity into business and professional activity.
Writers concur that consequently, passion and natural talent have been compromised by scientific approach like planning, communication, medicine, nutrition, tactics, psychology etc. This has increased the cost of managing sports and for any positive results, an investment of resources such as time, finance and human resource is paramount.

“The formerly huge sports power houses that are still operating a recreational and amateur setup can no longer compete,” says one writer from Uganda.

We find ourselves in such a scenario in relation to our football. Adequate finance resources management is paramount but can only be obtained by quality and quantity human resource with a fine mixture of football administration training and modern business practices and managerial skills to efficiently optimise the time resource in achieving the organisational goals.

It is this kind of human resource that is acutely lacking for the case of Ugandan or generally African Football, added the writer online, and can we not say we have the same in Zimbabwe, at club level, PSL and Zifa?

The local Premiership passed a resolution for all clubs to be modelled along Fifa guidelines with full office staff running the affairs of the club, resulting in the creation of new posts of Chief Executives and Media Liaison Officers. The Fifa Club licensing system is meant to organise football and give a timeline of each and every player, which will avoid squabbles over ownership and ages in the future.

Highlanders, as usual, have taken the lead to head hunt for a CEO to run the affairs of the oldest football institution in the country and veteran football administrator Ndumiso Gumede looks set to be unveiled as the man at the helm of the club once more. Never mind he has served at various levels at the club and is touted as the most achieving chairman after the club managed to secure immovable properly like club offices, club house and camping house during his tenure, a feat that was only followed by Zimbabwe Saints who however, managed to secure only a club house. Those were the two community owned teams that lead from the front, showing direction to the late entrants like AmaZulu and Motor Action who had their own sports clubs, apart from company owned clubs which had established infrastructure.

You would probably be inviting enemies if you suggest Gumede is not the right candidate for the Bosso CEO job. You can only say that at the risk of getting a few slaps and jeers along Lobengula Street and Egodini. This is because the man is idolised in the city and beyond, he is Mr Football, no doubt about that, but my question is where are the young brains when such high profile jobs are being taken by a reborn Gumede at the age of 69?

Very few would probably stand a chance in a interview where Gumede is also waiting outside with such a  mouthwatering CV. He was even CEO for Zifa from 1998 to 2004, and served at various capacities in and out of Zifa from 1980, and in the last four years, he was vice president. He has seen it all and from a different perspective, his experience should have been utilised at regional bodies like Cosafa, continental bodies like Caf or even at Fifa, but here we are, Gumede is coming back home full circle. Such is life so they say.

In addition, Gumede will continue serving in the Caf Appeals Committee and also as Fifa Interpol match fixing trainer. Highlanders chairman Peter Dube has made it clear that they had made up their minds on getting Gumede to run the club, leaving neutrals wondering if the young blood in business in general and Highlanders in particular, has failed over the years to convince the leadership that it can be trusted with such a big institution.

“We are putting everything together. We have had discussions with Gumede and he is making evaluations. We need a person who can fit in that capacity. We have identified what the job entails and what is left is for him to go through the job specifications considering that we caught him at a time when he is busy,” Dube told a local daily.

He said they were expected to complete the process in the next couple of weeks and that they were targeting Gumede for the post.
“We feel he has the capacity. There won’t be need to interview or interrogate anyone else because we are zeroing in on Gumede. We hope he won’t let us down. The discussions are unlikely to fail,” he said.

Gumede comes back now on full payroll, and he would not come cheap I suppose, maybe its good pay back for him for the job he did.
“Though football made me poorer, I have no regrets. It was about sacrifice and I remember using my car to ferry players to a match while at Highlanders. There have been negatives and our failure to lure sponsors ranks among the worst. Zimbabwean football can be in a better position with proper funding,” Gumede was quoted as saying last year when he announced he was leaving “football”. His first full participation in Highlanders in Highlanders affairs dates back to around 1976.

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