The Sunday Mail
Since the news broke out around lunch-time on Thursday that Zimbabwe had been suspended from the 2018 Fifa World Cup, social media and public discussions have been unanimous that it was time that Cuthbert Dube – and by extension his board — should do the honourable thing and resign.
The booting out of Zimbabwe was a piece of news that we never imagined we would get in our lifetime, but now that we have received it, isn’t it time we maximise that suspension to our advantage, has been the common question.
Previously it was feared that if Government were to interfere with the running of affairs at Zifa House, the country risked being sanctioned by Fifa, something like a two-year suspension — or whatever period — from all football-related competitions.
Now that the suspension has come anyway, isn’t it time that our Government in general and our Minister of Sport Arts and Culture in particular, should take action? Isn’t it time to dissolve the Zifa board, which has been bringing more shame to our football each passing day?
Any sane person who has a basic understanding and following of football will readily testify that no court should be convened to prosecute the Zifa board, for their crimes against football in the country have been documented for long.
From elimination by some of the countries that we knew less for football matters, to the lowest ranking in world football, to auctioning of assets, the sins for the current Zifa board have been mounting each passing day.
But wait a minute, even if we were to boot out Dube and bring in whoever, how much would that change the outlook of our football? Are the problems facing our football limited to football matters only? Or that they go beyond football, and are probably a microcosm of the problems afflicting the nation at large?
That the problems affecting football are not limited not to just the most beautiful game, but also could be the same problems that have seen our tennis go down? Same with cricket? Same with golf? Same with basketball?
Though some have been so ruthless as to link the demise of Zifa with the obtaining political environment, it should not escape our collective attention that what is happening on our soccer fields is not what should be happening. Ditto the administrative part of our sport.
I think we should not be so angry as to throw out the baby with the bath water. Fine, Dube & Co might have had their shortcomings, but I think the problems that are obtaining in our football — and sport in general — are bigger than just a personality.
Even if we were to remove Dube today — without a solution and programme of action in place that is tenable, what we will be doing will be akin to going round and round in circles. We might even bring Sepp Blatter or Danny Jordan to run our football — but as long as the structures, finances and politics do not support each other, then we are wasting our time.
Probably we need to ask each other why, 35 years after independence, our top players earn about a thousand dollars per month, in a game that has given birth to millionaires elsewhere? In a game that pays Wayne Rooney $250 000 per week. We need to find out why the corporate world is not so keen to invest in football, given the massive appeal and easy reach of football.
We need to know why some teams, save for the traditional big ones (Dynamos, CAPS United and Highlanders), play before almost empty stadiums, week-in and week-out? There are several questions that might not come right away, questions that need answers, questions that point to our state of football.
Even if we were to get the Pope to run our football administration, chances are we would be stuck in the same place. We need to change the working environment before we start casting those stones. Cuthbert Dube might have had his shortcomings, fine, but it is the whole football scenario, not just Cuthbert Dube, that needs a complete overhaul.
Our sporting and investing environment is not conducive to its sustainable development and the more we bicker about who holds what post, without addressing the attendant problems, we are going nowhere.
Probably the only positive that should come out of Zimbabwe’s banishment from the 2018 World Cup is that it gives us a clean slate, a chance to start afresh. The sporting environment has not been helped either by the minister, who at best appears out of sorts and not in touch with what is happening on the ground.
The Zifa mess has dragged on for too long and a right-thinking and decisive minister should have taken action long back, regardless of the consequences. As it stands now, those who have been calling for the dismissal of Cuthbert Dube and his board will now say they have been vindicated, that if they had been listened to long back, this mess could have been avoided.
But this is not the time to point fingers. It is time for proper planning and execution. If we fire Dube, what is the next step? Zifa remains broke, to what extent is the Government prepared to step in and help stop the financial rot that is at Zifa?
Are we going to appoint, or is it elect, acceptable people such that the corporate world would not hesitate to pour in its money?
Thousands of soccer fans have stopped going or following local soccer, not because they no longer love their beautiful game, but because the game has gotten so rotten that is a shame to be seen at a local stadium. That it is a shame to be seen watching a local football match on national television.
Yet that is the game that should be the source of our national pride, football being the most supported sport. The crowds that were building up at the cricket matches were not because people, all of a sudden, had found a new love, it was because they were looking for an escape route. Their first love had been trampled upon.
There have been calls for the formulation of a National Sports Policy which should give the nation guidance as to what needs to be done with the rehabilitation of the different sport fraternities and in the absence of a policy formulation, we are as good as groping in the dark.
So as it is, the ball rests in Minister Andrew Langa’s court.
And if he cannot decisively deal with the problem that lies before the nation, then it might as well not be out of order to call for him to walk out through the other door.
We can’t have the blind leading the blind. Now is the time for action, time to redeem whatever little respect is left of our beloved game.
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