The Sunday Mail
EMOTIONS have been running high following the charged Battle of Zimbabwe between Dynamos and a fired-up Highlanders at Rufaro last Sunday.
Poor Bongani Gadzikwa made a wrong call, and no one in his right mind will defend such a poor decision even if it benefited their team.
Everyone agrees Gadzikwa was wrong.
The differences arise from the Zimbabwe Referees Committee reaction of suspending the linesman, or assistant referee, less than 24 hours after the mistake.
The obvious temptation would be to reopen the debate all over again but years in the football trenches counsel otherwise.
Football is an emotional sport.
Bosso obviously went home feeling hard done by. They have every right to feel that way. But you must commend the Bosso players and executive for being real sportsmen.
They made their way out of Rufaro without creating a scene and in the ensuing post-match debate, Highlanders officials have been silent observers.
That’s maturity.
It’s no coincidence that Bosso are the oldest team in the land.
As Bosso went back to the drawing board after finding themselves on the wrong end of the stick, the debate erupted like a volcano.
Sadly, as a nation we missed a great chance to engage in meaningful debate.
Most of us tried to play the role of Dr Know-It-All and insults where hurled from one corner to the other.
Journalists started speaking like supporters and the laws of the game as well as some basic facts were twisted.
Now are these the same journalists we expect to be impartial when selecting the Soccer Stars of the Year?
There is nothing amiss with a football scribe having a soft spot for a local team but when the said journo starts behaving like a team’s defence lawyer, everything goes awry.
Instead of debating issues, our journalists started pointing fingers at each other.
Sharuko and Mutimukulu are Dynamos fans, Skhumbuzo Moyo is a Highlanders supporter, Ian Zvoma is confused and anti-Dynamos Steve Vickers is overzealous, it was said.
Alois Bunjira talks sense once in a while.
“Less knowledge of soccer rules is dangerous . . . fans, players, coaches and officials should read about the laws of the game,” he posted on Facebook last week.
The reaction was something else; the Caps United official-cum-journalist was accused of all sorts of things.
When we will start debating issues and not the man or woman? When will we start raising issues and not our emotions and voices?
We also had people we expect to know better alleging that Matemera was sent home from the Cosafa tournament after “another poor performance”.
We do not know when Ruzive Ruzive changed his name to Norman Matemera.
Ruzive is the one who got the boot at Cosafa and Matemera was roped in as his replacement.
Hope that will stick in the heads, it was Ruzive and not Matemera.
Then on national television we had Barry Manandi, on Gameplan, dismally trying to build a case against Matemera.
Manandi is no refereeing expert. This is not marketing.
If Wilfred Mukuna and his crew suspended Gadzikwa and not Matemera it shows where the whole blame should be apportioned.
We wait to see the speed with which blundering referees will be suspended with as we go forward.
Hail Mussa
He is not Mohammed but he is son to one and Shariff Mussa is an integral part of the Warriors set-up.
One just needs to spend time with the players to appreciate the role the Harare businessman plays in making life a bit swifter for the boys.
At times he digs into his pocket to bail out the Warriors out of little sticky situations.
Sometimes frustration sees Mussa mulling walking away but the undying love for his nation pushes him on.
A national team manager in every sense, big up Shariff Mussa.
Va Shagare exits the scene.
VaShagare is the founder of DeMbare DotComs and can be contacted on that Facebook page as well as the email [email protected]
