Dynamos loss: Whither club football?

That the other Zimbabwean CAF representatives – FC Platinum, Gunners, Motor Action and Hwange -also failed to reach the mini-league phases of both the Champions League and the Confederations Cup last year also paints a bad picture of the local game.

Even when Dynamos reached the mini-league stage in 2010, they only managed to grind out one win out of their six games. Certainly, not the best of records.

Highlanders were supposed to have been the other Zimbabwean Caf Champions League representative this year but the continent’s perennial under-achievers were slapped with a three-year Caf ban, after they withdrew from the Confederations Cup after the draw two years ago.

Premier Soccer League Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy Ndebele, said the league was concerned at the continuing poor performance of local clubs on the international scene, adding that something needed to be done urgently to improve the local game and our continental performance.

At one time, the Zimbabwean football league was ranked fourth in Africa, but has now plummeted to seventh and certainly it will be down under when the next rankings are made public. When the country’s best clubs continue to fail like this, it calls for urgent action to improve the game, or Zimbabwe will lose out on one of its two slots in continental club competitions.

Meanwhile DeMbare chairperson, Kenny Mubaiwa, said recently that the club had engaged its lawyers to look into allegations that they could lose their brand name and logo, after they failed to pay the $4,900 owed to Cypriot Financial Company, Qotho Finance.

The Cypriot company is alleged to have taken Dynamos to court and received a ruling last week, which ordered the club to stop using its name and logo, unless they settled the debt. Dembare did not oppose the application, but Mubaiwa said the Harare giants were trying to clear their name, as the club had been viewed as the epitome of corruption and mismanagement for a long time.

“It’s now the norm that anyone who feels they need money targets Dynamos. Where there is proof, we have tried to meet our end of the bargain, but where there is nothing, we cannot pay. This is the case with that company,” he said.

Mubaiwa said they had been paying all their creditors, adding that he was not aware of the debt owed to Qotho. “Even when it comes to player transfers, people now have the misconception that Dynamos are cheats and this has made our life in the transfer window a bit difficult. We can no longer negotiate with other clubs unless we have cash up front.”