Where do we go from here?

like a nice, principled statement, but I think most Dynamos fans did not find consolation in that statement when they lost on Sunday.
They always want to win.
I was privileged to witness the demolition of MC Alger at Rufaro by Lloyd Mutasa’s team. I had read a lot about MC Algers’s history and their type of play. The club is regarded as the most popular football team in Algeria, one of the most popular clubs in Africa but Dynamos reduced them to a mere ordinary side you would be tempted to believe the Glamour boys were playing Douglas Warriors.
Mutasa is a good coach and I am surprised everyone seems to be realising that now. He has been the same good man for the past six years. Winners are as good as leaders and naturally attract a following.
Good coaches are sought after because, by and large, football fans seek direction and good leadership.
Samaita is definitely a success story but he has to be told repeatedly that success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence.
The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.
Of course, I feel he will be a big name in our local football.
What I admire most about the man is his attitude.
We all know of some arrogant coaches who haven’t achieved as much as they could have simply because of their negative attitude.
Zimbabwe’s football followers are ambitious, rational and extremely proud. And they don’t fall in line with people who don’t respect them and whom they don’t believe carry their best interests at heart. More than anything else today, football followers believe they are part of a system.
If there is one thing that football leaders, administrators and coaches can do is to connect with fans at a human, or better still, at football level, become engaged with them fully and share experiences and emotions.
Effective football management is not about making speeches or being liked. It is defined by results.
Mutasa must try to be the best person he can be by making the best team choices and by making use of the vast talent he has at his disposal.
Our football is a great game. It is where an entire life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre of ground, where a person can suffer and die and rise again.
Football is a theatre where a sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and the future can fuse with the present.
It is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts, as we finally become our own potential. We need to treat this beautiful game with the due care that it deserves.
The year 2011 should bring better days for our game.
There are quite a few companies in this country which could get involved in our local football and make a real difference.
Surprisingly these big firms just choose not to do so.Yes, Delta Beverages came in but the deal is not good enough for the clubs. Of course, it is the best deal for the PSL executive that will get US$200 000 for administrating the league. Sadly clubs still have to raise funds to run their affairs and hope to finish the season in some respectable position on the log then get their prize money from Delta Beverages.
It’s as good as saying sakura munda then ndozokupa bucket rechibage kana tazokowha. I still feel we have to keep pleading with Econet Wireless so that they would probably change their way of thinking.
Econet, to me, is the only institution, which can come in and give us real sponsorship. They are such a big brand that can come in and as well get rewarded one way or the other in the process. When football fans were recently up with them in their thousands for their non-involvement in the local game, I felt that they were eventually going to understand the plight that our poor League is in. Mr Mboweni said “no deal”.
But up today I still feel that you were wrong Mr Mboweni. I felt Econet was supposed to be governed by the deep inner needs of the people, the masses and the football fans that ironically constitute a very bigger percentage of their subscriber base. I appreciate that nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide better but when you have a difficult decision to make, always choose the one that seems the best, however, rough it may be. I appreciate that Econet’s hands have been burnt before. Yes, they were hurt by what transpired in 2005.
I was based in Teeside, England, then but I was following up all the events. Whenever something really bad happens or you get knocked down by events in life, don’t look back at it for too long Mr Mboweni.
Mistakes and blunders are life’s way of teaching us. Our capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from our capacity to reach our goals.
No one wins everything and failure, when it happens, is just part of growth. Without failure, stumbling and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and succeeding will have no meaning at all.
Good businesses leaders create a vision – which you and your team at Econet have done, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. Now you are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, profits, power, subscriber base, influence and success in this country if you were going to be involved more with the people and their game. The problem is you just don’t see that happening.
A lot of businesses out there don’t see the returns on investment in the people’s game, they look at it as a liability, and until they can understand that proactive security in people and masses actually returns, give them a return on investment, it’s still a hard sell for people.
In the end Mr Mboweni, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits.
Unless you’ve got fewer people coming to your business, you can’t do much with the other two.
We will keep pleading with you and your board so that you may have a change of heart in this regard. The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
Most important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
We are going to follow the famous steps to winning and achieving: We will plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively and keep pursuing you persistently.
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. We have our own vision Mr Mboweni but we desperately need your help. What we got from Delta Beverages is not what we honestly wanted. It’s not a great deal. Delta quickly jumped in because I believe there was a rumour that Heineken was coming to Harare.
Of course, to Twine and his team at the PSL, it is a good deal. But we are still in the same old problems as clubs.
We have failed, not for lack of ability or brains, but simply because we have never been so organised.
We are now running our own football as the Board of Governers. We have the mandate to decide what is important for our clubs. We can now safely safeguard any investment that comes along in our football. We must overcome the notion that we must be regular and small.
It robs us, as clubs, of the chance to be extraordinary and leads us to remain mediocre. We want our league to be one of the most successful ones in the world.
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
The unfortunate truth is simple.We have to do something together Mr Mboweni for the people. We have to do the best and we don’t know how at the moment.
I have some marketing and sales tips for the PSL chief executive. Work hard to market our brand. Do it seriously even from that hotel room where you have been holed up since August 2010.We should be able to get better and get real sponsorship.
Suppose you are the CEO of the Lunar Park and your circus team is coming to town. If you paint a sign saying “Circus Coming to the Greenwood Park this Saturday”, that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into First Street to Sam Levy’s Village, that’s promotion.
If the elephant then walks through Mayor Masunda’s flower bed in Gunhill, that’s publicity. And if you get the Mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If the Harare citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they will have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.
And, if you planned the whole thing Mr Ndebele, that’s marketing. You and your team can market our game better and we will all come out smiling.
Thompson Dondo is the CEO of Kiglon Football Club. He can be contacted by e-mail on [email protected] or on mobile number 0772462544.