Zim football: The good, the bad and the ugly

The good

One major highlight of local soccer was the six-year flexible deal signed by the Premier Soccer League and South African pay-per-view channel, Supersport. For about a decade, South Africa’s ABSA Premiership has been the horizon of many a talented Zimbabwean footballer. Commentators have largely blamed this on lack of exposure for the locals and the Supersport deal might come as a blessing for our footballers.

Proceeds from television rights will also come in handy for the cash-strapped local clubs, including small ones that cannot attract big crowds to their home games. Highlanders’ history-making run of 23 matches without a loss is another talking point of the season but it was Dynamos’ successful defence of their league and cup double that stole the show, albeit for one wrong reason. The Glamour Boys won the Mbada Diamonds Cup fairly but that they beat their Bulawayo rivals to the crown at the backdrop of a controversial ZIFA Appeals Committee ruling left a bitter taste in soccer lovers’ mouths.

When will official violence be a punishable offence in our game? Hwange lost 4-2 in their first encounter against Dynamos in Harare without their coach, after Nation Dube and his assistant, Mebelo Njekwa, were heavily assaulted by DeMbare marshals just before the game. In a more professional league, there would be no question of the need for the PSL to order a replay and sanction Dynamos. The PSL ruled fine but ZIFA thought otherwise just because “there was no evidence of trauma on the Hwange players”.

Why then are coaches allocated benches in the stadium if teams can play without them when there is no sign of trauma in their players? Coaches are there to give players direction and tactics, not relieve trauma but ZIFA disregarded that in this case. The saddest day hit the local game on December 16, when former explosive Highlanders and Warriors striker, Adam Ndlovu, died in a road crash that also left his younger brother Peter critically injured.

For more than a week, Zimbabwe was plunged into deep mourning as political leaders, soccer lovers and neutrals hailed the fallen Chicken Inn coach as a legend, hero and unifier. Some even suggested that he be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre.

That his eventual burial at Bulawayo’s Lady Stanley Cemetery on December 22 united Zimbabweans confirmed him as a true man of the people.

The bad

The Warriors flattered to deceive once again, when they took a 3-1 lead over Angola going into the return leg of an Afcon qualifier in Luanda. However, they threw that away when they lost 2-0 and bombed out of the showcase that begins later this month.

They miss out of the biennial continental football showpiece for the fifth time in a row, after last appearing at the Egypt 2006 finals.

The junior teams fared no better, with ZIFA taking most of the flak for failing to send the Under-20 and Under-17s to their away fixtures in the African Youth Championships. So much for an organisation that disbanded the Warriors and made a vow to develop a future one from the junior ranks!

The ugly

Asia-gate bans that took centre stage towards the end of the year hogged the international limelight and further painted a bad picture of the Zimbabwean game. In trying to bring the matter to a close, ZIFA did a shoddy job in banning and suspending 70 players, officials, coaches and journalists in a move the Federation of International Football Associations said lacked basis and could therefore, not be adopted.